# How to make the perfect cup of coffee… according to PETER HITCHENS

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/how-to-make-the-perfect-cup-of-coffee-according-to-peter-hitchens/
- Published: 2026-10-22T15:35:53+00:00
- Updated: 2026-10-22T16:41:03+00:00
- Original publisher: Daily Mail (publisher lean: Right)
- Original article: https://www.dailymail.com/debate/article-16227877/PETER-HITCHENS-Starbucks-ruined-coffee-perfect-cup.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&ito=1490
- Topics: World

## Key points

- Hitchens says Britain has lost sight of good coffee.
- A cup on a train to Paris shaped his taste.
- He prefers coffee that tastes freshly ground, not bitter or weak.

## Summary

Peter Hitchens argues that good coffee has become hard to find, displaced in Britain by bitter espresso drinks and instant coffee. He traces his appreciation of coffee to a cup served on a train from Calais to Paris when he was 14, which changed how he understood the drink.

He recalls preferring that coffee’s fresh-ground aroma and balanced taste, with hot milk, and contrasts it with the instant coffee he drank after returning to Oxford. The article presents his personal search for a way to recreate that first experience, while criticising the coffee commonly served in Britain.

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Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.