Why you should avoid coffee in the UK – and tea in Italy

The Guardian

3 May 2024 at 1:33 pm·1-min read

<span>‘Here in Italy, just €1.20 (if not less) gets you a delicious, flavoursome espresso and only a few cents more buys you a cappuccino.’</span><span>Photograph: Miguel Medina/AFP/Getty Images</span> — ‘Here in Italy, just €1.20 (if not less) gets you a delicious, flavoursome espresso and only a few cents more buys you a cappuccino.’Photograph: Miguel Medina/AFP/Getty Images

Why does your article (The £5 coffee is coming – but should we swallow it?, 30 April) not mention the elephant in the coffee shop? Coffee in the UK is at best mediocre and at worst gag-worthy.

I live in Milan, but often travel to the UK to visit family, and I am inevitably disappointed by the cost and quality of the coffee there. Coffee shops also always seem to have sticky tables, sticky floors and shabby furniture – which is fine, but not if you’re paying £4 or more for one drink.

Here in Italy, just €1.20 (if not less) gets you a delicious, flavoursome espresso, and only a few cents more buys you a cappuccino. The solution is only to drink tea when out and about in the UK and stick to coffee here in Italy (where the tea is generally deplorable).
Melissa Wright
Milan, Italy

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