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.