Allinda

Wow, who'd have thought rekindling a 10 year old post would garner such enthusiastic responses. Vive la difference! To AMHuntFerry, no we never shopped in convenience stores - not our thing. With 3 little kids in tow we also did the standard tourist trips to Disney and Universal plus Walmart once to get a photo. 😅 My post was more about our global differences in taste especially relating to espresso coffee and the use of UHT longlife milk in it. Yes, you do have UHT milk in the states and even your regular milk is often partly UHT treated. It seems there are quite a few differences in 'regular' milk around the globe. For anyone interested here's a summary of facts https://chatgpt.com/share/66e63b22-1a54-800c-a8bf-1208c46360e5

Haha, wasn't sure anybody would read my comment after 10 years. I wonder if any of the writers have changed their opinion on coffee over that time????

In our travelling experience (as Aussies) we felt the milk issue was a cultural one similar to cheese, coffee and even bread preferences. For months touring the US we had trouble finding fresh milk rather than long-life UHT and bread products that weren't sweeter than our 'usual' variety. Same with cheeses being processed rather than matured. All a matter of different tastes I guess. On three Oceania cruises we never managed to get fresh milk but we're still loyal to them because of the fantastic cuisine. We sadly have to forego our coffee onboard because of the smell and taste of the UHT milk. Of most concern though was the coffee. In a million years vacuum packed 'Illy' coffee will never be anywhere close to freshly roasted and ground beans. Our Oceania Baristas genuinely believed Illy coffee was the best and UHT milk was fresh milk until I explained the carton label to them. On a small-ship cruise down the Adriatic we were able to bring our own fresh milk daily but the problem was that the crew of five also liked it much better 🙂 Our impression is that the coffee culture is gradually spreading and taste expectations (read freshness) are becoming more discerning in most countries. Even the coffee we had in Rome had improved over a four year span and that's where the whole espresso thing started.