Wagner’s music is better than it sounds. ~ Edgar Wilson Nye

People tend to love Starbucks despite it tasting like it was brewed for three weeks in the center of the sun.

Most mask this reality by ordering a coffee beverage instead of coffee, or by disguising the taste with biblical levels of additives. But anyone who prepares Starbucks beans at home knows that the coffee itself isn’t the problem–it’s the brewing and serving that’s the issue.

Happily, there’s a little-known solution: ask for a pour-over.

The pour-over method is a technique normally employed by much higher-end coffee shops, and it yields you a custom cup of coffee that isn’t scalded from hours of overbrewing.

It takes longer (approximately five minutes), but the result is a remarkably good cup of coffee from Starbucks. As a bonus, doing this also allows you to try beans other than whatever they have brewed at the time, and it doesn’t even cost more than a regular pour.

Give it a go next time you’re in. It’ll be nice to add “coffee” to the list of things Starbucks does well.

::

It’s sacrilegious to my inner french press, but I am taken by the ease of the Keurig. We got silly and went with the B70 Platinum Model (pictured above), which is actually just a robot that makes coffee with a french press.

Not really.

But it’s wicked cool anyway. ::

So my buddy Steve brought me a small sample of Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee today. Evidently a co-worker was brewing some for himself and offered a taste. I now realize this was an act of cruelty.

<deep breath>

I am prone to hyperbole, so I’ll try and restrain myself…

This coffee makes me want to be a better man.

Hmm, too much hyperbole-bell.

Seriously, this is not just “better” coffee. It’s not just “good” where other coffee is “ok”. No, this coffee is “euphoric”, while other coffee is “meh”. There’s that much of a difference. And it’s not some subtle distinction that you can only grasp after years of study; you take a sip and you just know it’s the best coffee you’ve ever tasted. Period. That’s with no additives whatsoever.

This is coming from a novice coffee enthusiast, not an expert, mind you, but that might even support my claim. It’s the mildness and lack of bitterness that the coffee is known for. Here’s what Wikipedia says about it, which seems to be the consensus after some cursory research:

The best lots of Blue Mountain coffee are noted for their mild flavor and lack of bitterness. Over the last several decades, this coffee has developed a reputation that has made it one of the most expensive and sought-after coffees in the world.

Supposedly there is only one coffee that’s better, called Kopi Luwak, which is made by having lemurs eat the coffee cherries and then poop out the seeds (the coffee beans).

That’s a bit extreme for me at this point, so I think I’ll stick with my plans for freshly ground, french-pressed Jamaican Blue Mountain (I just installed a water filter at home for this). And at somewhere around $35/lb I think the Jamaican stuff is expensive enough. I think I’ll have to keep the Blue Mountain on hand for my weekly or bi-weekly treat, as it’s too expensive for a daily brew.

Anyway, if you haven’t tried this stuff, I highly suggest it. It’ll change your life. ::

Related

[ A Coffee Primer | dmiessler.com ]

[ This resource is still available, but is now located at its permanent home at:

>> danielmiessler.com/study/coffee/

You will be redirected shortly; please update any references. Thank you.]

I’m learning more about coffee. The main reasons for this are that I enjoy knowing a lot about things–especially when they are as rich and nuanced as coffee, and also because I’m trying to be more healthy, which means drinking coffee black.

One thing I’ve picked up through my limited research is the fact that most coffee consumed by the masses is not high enough quality to be consumed black. A recent Consumer Reports review of the major coffees contains language like this:

…milk and sugar may help.

This is actually the language they use to separate their categories of coffee, which I found quite interesting. Their top coffees they rated as:

Good choices, even when black.

That says a lot, and it relieves much of the stress I’ve been feeling due to not enjoying most coffee black. The problem seems to be that I’ve not been drinking good coffee.

So here are some that I’ll be trying soon, as they scored the top three slots in Consumer Reports’ latest coffee evaluation.:

1. Eight O’Clock Coffee
2. Caribou Coffe
3. Kickapoo Coffee

In addition, I’m going to be making my coffee at home in the morning and bringing it to work, and I’ll be investing in a French Press soon so I can get whole bean coffee, grind it myself, and make smaller quantities of a higher quality.

Anyway, if any of you are coffee geeks/snobs and you have some guidance for me…I’d love to hear it. ::

Links

[ Coffee | Wikipedia.org ]

He told me not to tell anyone, but I did.

I just purchased beer for the first time in my life. I’m trying to quit drinking soda for a host of reasons, and I am going to replace that despicable habit with some more refined ones, namely coffee, tea, and beer (and then wine later on). The idea is to focus on more subtle and sophisticated tastes that don’t hinge on a day’s worth of sugar in one serving.

I purchased a variety pack of Sam Adams earlier today, and sitting next to me is an unopened Honey Porter. Wish me luck, and if you have any suggestions for getting into (everything is a lifestyle for me) beer, tea, or coffee, do let me know. – [Edit] Ok, this tastes like dirt. I guess I’ll try and push through that…

Everyone working at a coffee shop should learn one thing on the very first day – The opening on the coffee lid should be opposite the seam on the coffee cup.

The number of coffee shops that fail to perform this very simple check is staggering. It’s not a complex idea, folks: the seam is imperfect and doesn’t allow a perfect seal with the lid. As such, if someone pours coffee in the direction of the opening, it’ll leak.

I have actually found that many actually (either purposely or without even knowing it) line up the seal and the opening almost perfectly. It’s insane. So what I end up having to do, almost every single time I get a coffee, is rotating the thing back around so that they are opposite each other.

How this issue isn’t common knowledge among coffee shop traning programs is beyond me.