What does 'regular' coffee mean to you?

Growing up between 'upstate' NY and NYC, (upstate means an hour and change from the city, not very upstate) ordering your coffee regular meant light cream light sugar. In my travels outside of NY that created a good amount of confusion. I'm curious to see what that means in different regions. And since Starbucks came around, is it even a universally understood thing in NYC anymore? I'm gonna keep using that term since I get stuck on phrases I used in the old days.

"Regular" coffee, to me in NJ, means caffeinated -- as opposed to decaf. That's it.

Regular is the opposite of Decaf. Period.

If I wanted your "regular" coffee, I'd spell it out: "Regular coffee -- light cream, light sugar."

Other orders in a NJ diner (and probably everywhere else in the world lol) would include:

"Coffee -- cream and sugar"
"Coffee -- half-and-half, light sugar"
"Coffee, black -- light sugar"
"Decaf, cream and sugar"
"Decaf, black"
"Double Espresso with Sambuca"

But of course, at a diner, the cream/milk/half-and-half and sugar/substitutes are at the table already, so you can make it however you want it yourself.

Plus, I worked in NYC for 3 years and never had an issue ordering coffee my way, so...

I don't even recognize decaf coffee as a thing. That goes without saying unless otherwise specified. The regular part was for cream and sugar as far as I understood it

When you go outside of the northeast things get confusing. I read a fairly lengthy article from a Boston journalist about the difficulties of ordering a regular coffee when you're outside of your region. Down south it apparently means black, somewhere it's no milk with sugar, etc.

Reaular Coffee to me is a cup of coffee, two sugars and milk.

And don't forget the buttered roll with that!

Rolls- there's another regional thing. In NY we all know what a hard roll is. In Alabama a waitress asked me if I was trying to order stale bread...

No no no! Regular coffee "regular" coffee, black. No sugar/cream or pansy Starbuck stuff.

It's funny cause I'd NEVER put cream or sugar in my coffee. Yet, if I have hot tea, it's gotta have cream & sugar. Go figure!!



TIS

TIS, Regular coffee to me is coffee, two sugars and milk. Now if you want t make it light you order light and they will add more milk, if you just want it black that's how you would order it, Coffee black, no sugar. Forget Fivebucks, deli coffee is the best! As long as it is a fresh pot!

Yeah, I think it's pretty subjective and probably varies from state to state, if not neighborhood to neighborhood. I think Geoff is being too absolute. Because when you go to a corner deli in the Bronx and ask for a regular coffee, you're gonna get caffeinated coffee with milk and sugar.

Agree PB, is there any other coffee besides Caffinated?

Regular is Caffeine, milk and sugar (Downstate NY). I like the hard roll too. Down here in south Jersey I went to a deli one morning. Poured my own coffee and asked for a buttered roll. I got a small hoagie roll with butter. Duh.

Here's a coffee related question for you.

I normally drink coffee only in the morning or sometimes in a restaurant, I'll have it with dinner. HOWEVER, if I am having cake, or a slice of pie, I simply must have coffee to go with it. They just go together, no?



TIS

Cake and no for pie for me TIS. I like a little Grand Marnier in my coffee when I'm having cake. It just taste so much better!

Same here TIS.

I just found out that if I pour hot coffee in a cup of ice and add a bunch of heath bar flavored creamer to it, it makes a damn good iced coffee. All my other attempts to make iced coffee from hot coffee didn't match up to what I bought from outside but this just nailed it

This is certainly eye opening. Growing up out west:

Regular Black, plain
Unleaded Decaf

That's funny that she actually asked you that....I'm sure that's up there on your charts of dumbest things you seen/heard.....Another thing that is regional is the pork roll sandwich, in some states they don't even know what that is, I thought it's supposed to be a small world!

I can't really say it was the dumbest thing I heard since she was the one looking at me like I was the idiot. It just boils down to regional differences I suppose

I hear ya, i'm just saying looking at it from mine or your prospective it's pretty dumb, but like you said the regional thing. I'm sure if i go down south somewhere i probably wouldn't understand some of the things they were talking about either.

Yep I did think she was dumb at the time, but thinking back it was just the situation. 2 people each looking at the other one like they were a moron. But I guess that 'when in rome' statement comes to mind. The redneck wins by default

Go outside of Lower New York State, walk into an Italian Deli, and ask for a salami and provolone on a wedge. They'll look at you like you just told them you were a registered sex offender.

These things are regional: Wedge, roll, hero, grinder, etc. But at the end of the day, it's all the same shit .

My wife buys these hugely (and unnecessarily) expensive coffee beans from the natural food store and grinds them herself. She drinks it black. I drink Folgers or Maxwell House with half a sweet and low and a little milk. Pretty good.

Nothing wrong with those, Oli. Throw in Chock full o’Nuts. Common coffee for regular folks .

I don't care what kind of coffee I drink if I have flavored cream. Even just milk and sugar will mask crappy coffee. But if it's black I want good stuff, but I'll still drink the shit. At the end of the day, coffee is coffee when you really want a cup

I keep heavy cream (as opposed to milk) in my refrigerator just for coffee. There's no comparison.

I've been getting into those flavored creams a lot lately. I used to stick with the basic caramel and French vanilla, but now they have everything down to the girl scout cookie flavors. So now I can take some cheap 99 cent can of coffee and make some awesome stuff just by adding that stuff. I gotta try the heavy cream tho.. but with something better than chock full of nuts

It's a New York City thing. Turnbull and SC will back me up on this one .

Do they still give out coffee in those cups with the greek designs? I hear they discontinued those.

Absolutely. It's a NYC blue collar coffee. A real cup of Joe.

You mean the blue and white to-go cups?

I still see them. Maybe because they bought them in such bulk that they're still in the basements of some of these old joints.

I drink that, I have it right now. But I use my flavored cream with that. I would drink it if I had to but I prefer anything else

Yup those are the ones. I should have bought some cases. Maybe I'll find them on ebay

Regular is American coffee from a counter with half and half and sugar. Starbucks doesnt do regular!

Here you go:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/100-count-WE-ARE...=item4623e86300

I'm with you on this one..

Thanks PB

I know here in Mass, be it Dunkin Donuts, Honey Dew, or any of the other donut/coffee shops I go to a regular is cream and sugar, with the size dictating the amount of sugars and creams. Down south on the other hand its just a black coffee.

Cafe au lait with beignets or dark roast chicory coffee.

Flavored creamers?? I thought you were a real coffee drinker

(Nothing wrong with flavored creamers, but you can't really act all macho drinking it! lol)

And as I said, to me, in these parts, "regular" means caffeinated (you don't even need to say "regular" to be understood, as opposed to "decaf"). If you want the cup of coffee you desire, then just say what you want (e.g., "Regular coffee with cream and sugar"). Not that tough, and no matter where you are, they'll know what you want! (But yet again, isn't the creamer/sweetener usually up to you to add yourself??)

What's a Brit know about coffee??

How about an "expresso"? (Remember Paulie Walnuts trying to order one?)

Hey flavored creamers are strictly for making iced coffee at home. I drink my hot coffee like a man

"Regular" coffee to me is Gevalia House Blend mixed with Godiva Chocolate Coffee, Thick like Mud, Top it off with a splash of frothy milk All Made by myself with Love

I read that espresso has only 70-90 milligrams of caffeine compared to a regular cup of coffee which has 120 or more
All these years and I didn't even know this til now. So glad
I'm not a Starbucks junkie.

I hate Starbucks. I really do.

I make my own coffee for the most part. But when I grab a cup on the run, you can't beat the dollar coffee at McDonalds. Any size you want for a buck. And it's as good as any takeout cup of coffee you're ever going to find.

And the strange part is, I don't even eat McDonald's. But the coffee's great .

pb, dunno if you remember Eight O'Clock coffee (from the old A&P days) but it's still sold in many supermarkets now and it's quite good. If you've never tried it, I'd recommend it.

PB,

You mention McDonald's coffee & sparked a memory. A few years ago I was visiting my parents in MI. They were pretty much set (like most older people) in their routine. We went to mass Sunday morning and then right to McDonald's. My dad said that although he wasn't crazy about their burgers, he liked their coffee.


TIS

Love it, SC. Do you remember the grinders right at the checkout counter? The checker would grind the beans while you were writing your check or getting your money out. But I've seen it on the shelves at Stop and Shop recently, so I don't think the A&P owns the product exclusively anymore. But I'm not too sure either way.


Small world, Tis. Or maybe not, because older people seem to have the same habits everywhere. But my Dad, who's going on 85, is living here almost full time now because he has a hernia. Anyway, he insists that my wife or my son drop him off at the McDonalds on Philip and Tremont here in Throggs Neck at ten o'clock every morning. He has a two hour "breakfast" with half-a-dozen like minded seniors .

I just like a normal coffee, none of this fancy starbucks stuff..

Regular down here in So. Cal. is black caffeinated coffee. Can't really avoid the Starbucks down here since there's one every half mile. When I go there I get the blond roasts because I like the higher caffeine content. I also like Adams Avenue coffee, a local specialty grind popular in Newport Beach and Huntington Beach. At home I use my Keurig machine and make coffee with unsweetened almond milk and stevia or Splenda. There's a lot of flavor choices with those Keurig K-cups.

I hear ya about the Starbucks on every corner. So wuz goin on down there in Huntington ? I heard of a bomb threat did it really stop them from surfing?

That's everywhere, guys. You can't swing a dead cat in New York without hitting a Starbucks. The city, the suburbs, they're even starting to pop up in the seedier neighborhoods, which is really strange given their prices.

And stupid me. I thought the blond roast had LESS caffeine. You know, blond being lighter than black? No wonder I almost gave myself a heart attack. True story .

Ha ha ha ha Yea very misleading you must have been thinking it's like a blonde beer which is a LIGHTER form of beer

It was a stupid 16 y.o. kid who made a threat. I haven't gone for several years, but the best part, of course, is the bikini contest. I don't know if that is still going on since the riot a year or two ago. They scaled things down and there's a heavy police presence. It was mostly idiots from L.A. who caused the trouble, mostly ultra left-wing anarchist groups. Then once the action started the drunken partiers got into the melee.

They roast it more to make it a darker coffee, and more roasting means the caffeine is being cooked out. That's why breakfast coffees have a higher caffeine content, and robusta beans have more than arabica.

@Faithful1 wow a kid Thnx for the info.

Very interesting I'm learning so much about coffee Wow I'm gonna try the breakfast blend. Caffeine is my drug of choice

Coffee, like chocolate, is one of God's gifts to mankind :-)

...except in over-abundance, like most anything. I was a coffee junkie during college and for years after that. Up to 2 pots/day, myself, black! Ended up screwing up my stomach so I had to switch to tea. Now, altho I love coffee, I will only (and still rarely) drink a cup after dinner at a restaurant. And now with cream*, because a buddy once told me it helps keep the stomach less irritated. I don't even drink tea much anymore, either -- good ol' H2O or Powerade Zero** or Vitamin Water or good ol' alcohol (at night) is fine by me!

*shoulda learned from my Calabrian grandfather, who gave us young kids half-coffee-half-milk when we were like 8-10 years old! lol

**was addicted to this stuff until I realized how much sodium was in it! One bottle is 2.5 servings, equaling 15% of total daily sodium allowance! Now I only drink it after a workout, and just half a bottle.

I drink a load of coffee- and in fact am having one right now. To me a "Regular" coffee is just caffeinated coffee in a cup. You add what you want. As I stop for coffee quite a bit, it seems that they all seem to just give you the coffee and let you add your own stuff. I love when I'm in Barnes and Noble and go to their Starbucks and ask for a regular coffee and these minimum wage earners look shocked and ask if you want "Venti" size. No I just want a fuckin cup of coffee without all the phoney shit- this is USA, not Italy. Also one more thing. Pizzaboy is right - McDonalds has great coffee. I had a friend in HS who got a job at McDonalds and over thge years worked his way up and owned a couple of them. He said that they always bought the very best coffee they could find.

A lot of people have said that McDonald's coffee is really good. I think that Burger King is actually better than McDonald's.

Burger King did indeed have a good coffee back when they called it "Cup O' Joe" For some reason it is now different and not so good. I rarely ever go to Burger King so maybe some of the others are better.

To me it just means coffee that's hot and has caffeine in it.

Then if you want to you can add milk, sugar, or whatever you want to it.