Etcetera, coffee.

As everyone who knows me knows, I love to drink coffee. Holland is great for me because everyone here also loves to drink coffee. Every morning I make a thermocarafe of a few cups of coffee. I make Douwe Egberts, which seems to be the only name-brand choice at the grocery. I like it so much that I'm not motivated to look for coffee elsewhere. I've also reconsidered koffiemelk and decided that I really like it. The koffiemelk I was drinking before (I mentioned it in the first column of this blog, "Dutch Cuisine") was the equivalent of 2%. Now that I'm drinking whole koffiemelk, I get it.

In 2003, the Netherlands ranked 9th in worldwide per capita coffee consumption with an average of 6.8kg/14.96lbs per person. The US ranked 22nd with 4.2kg/9.24lbs per person. Number one was Finland with an average 11.4kg/25.08lbs. Here's a link to other stats if you're interested. Note that many of the top-consuming countries are in the far northern hemisphere. Oddly, Aruba is near the top of the list. However, Aruba is characterized as a country within the kingdom of the Netherlands.

A lot of people joke about "coffeeshops" in Amsterdam. Coffeeshops (as opposed to cafes where people go to drink coffee) are where people go to purchase and consume soft drugs. They have fanciful names like "Space Mountain" and are found throughout the country. The government even provides public service announcement cards at hotels. The idea behind the coffeeshops is to spend less money combatting soft drugs and to focus on hard drug interdiction. The government believes this system is working because there are fewer hard drug addicts (1.6/1000 versus 2.7/1000) and fewer deaths from drug overdose than in other European countries (source: Cultureshock! Netherlands). Coffeeshop owners were able to strike a compromise with the upcoming smoking ban. There will be no smoking at the point of sale. Below is a photo of some people waiting for a coffeeshop outside Utrecht to open.







Someone asked about our oven and stove, so I've decided to include a picture. It's a 5-burner gas stovetop and the oven is huge. I love it!