A Bean to Grind

A girl and her espresso machine are not soon parted

2012-02-10T14:08:00.000-06:00

This blog is not the only thing I dusted off recently. I also rediscovered my old espresso machine. Let me preface by saying that I have always had a love-hate relationship with this machine. Apparently I'm currently in a love faze. I got this machine right after the Uncaffeinated one and I got married (almost nine years ago - zowie!).

See how clean my counter looks? Yeah, I totally just did that for the photo.

This machine was a steal. Since it was nine years ago and as a general rule I can't remember numbers for more than 45 seconds, I have no idea what we actually paid for it. I do remember that we couldn't believe how good a deal we got. We were at Marshall Fields (when it was still called that) rounding out our towel and dish sets and happened to hit the trifecta of sales. We were getting a discount on anything we had registered for, we happened to hit a progressive white sale (so thankfully the dishes and towels added up to large % off) plus we did what we never EVER do - we opened up a store credit card for the additional discount. I've heard that it's a particularly Midwestern attribute to brag about how cheaply you bought something.

Well what do you want from me?

However, upon bringing it home and trying it out I discovered a major design flaw that I can't BELIEVE I didn't notice before I bought it. You know how half of what you use an espresso machine for is to steam milk? Well, the steam wand is so stubby and stationary that you can't steam milk in almost any reasonable container known to man. It did come with a plastic cup and hose that you could, in theory, connect to the machine so that it would suck the milk from the cup, though the tube, into the machine and out... somehow, I don't remember. I don't remember because it didn't WORK! My favorite part is that in the instruction booklet it touts the added benefit that you can use this espresso machine to heat up soup.

SOUP?! I don't even know where to start with that one.

The years have come and gone, and the machine has fallen into times of both heavy use and of disuse. I'm not sure what possessed me to clean it off and try it again, but I have to say that, for now at least, I'm digging it. Now that even a small, simple latte at Starbucks crosses the $4 threshold, I enjoy bringing a homemade latte to work for pennies. I did a happy dance all by myself the other day when I realized I had all the ingredients I needed to make a mocha right then and there, including the whipped cream!

So for now the espresso machine is my friend again. And like all time-tested friendships, we seem to have picked up right where we left off.

I've so been there

2012-02-09T19:58:00.000-06:00

I love it when two of my favorite things combine: coffee and poetry. I get the daily Writer's Almanac email, and it's my little ray of poetry sunshine each day.

This poem is one of my favorites. Not just because it's about coffee, although that helps, but because it has such a delightful twist. I was very tempted to include the whole poem here, but instead I've linked you to the site that, you know, has the rights to reproduce it. I don't need a lawsuit and as the wife of a playwright I understand and appreciate the importance of copyright.

So now that you've read it, let me just say that I have totally been both of these people. I have ordered the ridiculously complicated, takes-me-thirty-seconds-to-say-it drink, and I have been the person behind that other me in line furious and just needing my COFFEE.

image credit

coffee tastes better with saltwater

2012-02-07T19:39:00.000-06:00

I won't even try to catch you up on much that has gone on since I had Bean, but this is a coffee discovery worth sharing.

In November of this year the Uncaffeinated One, Bean, and I went to Florida on vacation. Cocoa Beach to be precise. While there I discovered a new and improved way to enjoy my morning coffee.

Drinking coffee while walking on the beach at sunrise.

Taken on my idyllic morning walk with Starbucks coffee in hand.

Now, here it must be mentioned that I am a land-locked Minnesotan. While we have scads of lakes, and that's all very well and good, I believe my natural habitat to be the beach. Never mind that I can't swim well and that I don't actually go IN the water. That's not the point. Never mind that my stretch marks are so hideous and freak-show-like that can never wear a two-piece again. That's also not the point, but it is a little sad. The POINT is, I think there's nowhere I am ever more at ease and more myself than when I am listening to the waves on the beach, letting my translucently pale skin sip some sun, and digging my toes into the sand.

That said, I made it my morning routine to get up at 6:30am (on vacation!) and walk down the beach to the nearby Starbucks. Sometimes I would pick up pastries to bring back for breakfast, sometimes the walk was purely for me. It was bliss.

The first time I made the walk in the morning it was chilly by the local standards. I maintain that 60 degrees is not cold and does not preclude a walk on the beach in sandals. I was the only person on the beach as far as I could see. Heaven.

I did run into two very nice stoned people the next morning. They were SO disappointed that I was not interested in going with them to the SevenEleven. It just broke their hearts and possibly ruined their day. They also thought the Starbucks was out in the ocean on a steamer ship, so there you go.

Welcome back, coffee lovers

2012-02-06T15:00:00.000-06:00

I have decided that it's time to resuscitate the old coffee blog. Where have I been these last two years?

Let's see, where have I been?

I stopped blogging in the summer of 2009 when I found out I was pregnant. In April of 2010 I had my first child, a perfect baby boy that we'll call Bean here. Since then my days have been filled with poopy diapers, runny noses, and lots and lots of joy. In addition to being a full-time mom, I also still work part time at the same arts organization I worked at before having Bean. I am truly the luckiest mom on earth, since I get to participate in the world of being a full-time, mostly-stay-at-home-mom and I also get to keep doing the job I love and get out twice a week to talk to grown-ups.

It's a good life.

Now that Bean is circling toward two, I am resurfacing. I figured this would be as good a time as any to relaunch into the interwebs.

While I know my life as a mom will inevitably creep into this blog, THIS IS NOT A MOMMY BLOG. It's a coffee blog written by a mom who needs caffeine now more than ever.

Bean and me.

I knew coffee was beautiful

2009-08-18T19:29:00.003-05:00

I've always thought a good cup of coffee was a work of art, but this artist from Tulsa, Oklahoma takes it a step further and creates works of art using espresso as paint. She recreates famous works of art, like Vermeer's The Girl With the Peal Earring and Michelangelo's sistine chapel ceiling, and inserts coffee into the composition. She says she generally prefers to use espresso right from the machine, but when she needs darker tones she lets it sit for a while.

I particularly love her depiction of Michelangelo's creation scene. You know the one, where God and Adam are reaching across to one another and are about to touch hands. In Eland's version Adam is pouring God a cup of coffee from a french press. Brilliant!

Click here to see her web site. I recommend paging through her gallery!

Protest at Starbucks

2009-08-16T10:39:00.004-05:00

There was a protest yesterday at the Selby and Snelling Starbucks in Saint Paul. Employees were joined by customers and union workers to protest the firing of an employee they say was unjustly accused of theft. The fired employee is Ethiopian, causing some to call this a case of racism.

The employee, Azmera Mehrbatu, maintains that she never stole money and her co-workers corroborate that her till was never off and that she was a great barista. Customers came to her defense saying that she knew everyone's drink by memory and they threatened not to return to the store if Mehrbatu isn't reinstated.

What bothers me about all of this is the way Mehrbatu says she was treated. After her shift she was taken to the back room by the district manager and accused of stealing money by ringing up drinks at a discounted price, a refill of coffee for instance instead of a full-price cup, and putting the difference into the tip jar. Mehrbatu, whose English is less than fluent, says she was presented with no evidence and was coerced into signing a promissory note to pay Starbucks $1,200 in exchange for them not calling the police. Mehrbatu's co-workers expressed concern that she may not have fully understood what she signed. They kept her locked in the back room for over an hour and a half convincing her to sign the paper.

Now, I know that theft is a major problem for companies like Starbucks and I'm sure they feel that they have to nip these things in the bud. However, in my opinion that is no excuse for forcing an employee to sign a document under the threat of calling the police. There are better, more humane ways of dealing with these situations, even if the employee in question really did steal. Starbucks management should not be acting like a couple of cops interrogating a suspect.

Trader Joe's coffee: good for the price

2009-08-14T13:49:00.002-05:00

A while back I tried Trader Joe's coffee for the first time. Saint Paul recently got its first Trader Joe's, so this was the first time I had ever been in one. I got the Smooth and Mellow variety (from a surprisingly large selection of coffees). I didn't review it at the time because I couldn't decide what I really thought of it. It was hard to brew it strong enough to get it to taste like much, but it was true to its promise of being smooth and mellow - just a bit too smooth and a bit too mellow maybe. It was coffee with a real confidence problem. So, after I finished that canister (which didn't take too long since I kept trying to brew it stronger and stronger) I went back to Trader Joe's for a second try.

This time I went to the other side of the spectrum completely - ultra dark Sumatra - that name promised a little more enthusiasm from the beans. I like my coffee to practically stand up on its own and tell me "good morning sunshine!"

This 12-oz canister was less than $5 - an incredible price. Most of their coffees run a little bit more than that, but not by much. The Sumatra is really quite good. It's not complex, but it's definitely dark and the flavor is satisfying. Not too shabby for $5! Most of Trader Joe's coffees come whole bean, but they have a grinder there that you can use.

I'm looking forward to trying their other varieties now that I know they're not all weak and wimpy.

review: Brewberry's Coffee Shop

2009-08-08T14:03:00.007-05:00

On this muggy, hot day (well, as hot as it's been this summer anyway) the uncaffeinated one and I tried Brewberry's Coffee Shop on Randolph and Fairview in Saint Paul. We had driven by it many times, but had never gone in. Brewberry's as the unfortunate distinction of being located directly across the street from a Caribou Coffee, which had the audacity to build its shop ridiculously close in what was clearly a nose-thumbing gesture to the neighborhood shop. Brewberry's is sunny and charming in appearance. The colors are fresh and the seating area is well-lit and inviting. There are perhaps a few too many leaflets and posters cluttering the entrance, but turn the corner into the main area of the shop and the clutter is gone.

I ordered a Thai coffee (made with sweetened condensed milk) and the uncaffeinated one had a hot chocolate. The Thai coffee was very good. Sweet but not too sweet with the

right balance of smooth

coffee taste. Even the uncaffeinated one deemed it "not bad", which is actually pr

etty amazing, as his usual reaction to a coffee beverage is a wrinkled nose, a curled lip and a little bit of tongue stuck out.

The coffee was served in glasses, which I'm not such a fan of, but I think I could

have requested a mug instead. It was a very nice place to sit and read and chat. I would definitely come back.

While we were there is seemed like there was a fairly steady stream of people trickling in, although few

stayed to sit. There also seemed to be a decent number of people at the Caribou across the street, however. I hope they do a good

business. I get the feeling, from the numerous ways they emphasize that they're a neighborhood coffee shop, that there are a number of regular customers who are rightly outraged at the

Caribou and who are loyal to their local independent shop.

review: Hard Times Cafe

2009-08-07T15:53:00.004-05:00

Last night I went to a Fringe Festival show - Untitled Duet with Houseplant. The show was fantastic! But before the show the uncaffeinated one and I went to get a cup of coffee. We were going to go to Mapps Coffee and Tea on Riverside in Minneapolis, but sadly it was closed for the night. So instead we went across the street to the Hard Times Cafe. I suspected that I wasn't cool enough to go in just by looking at the outside and seeing the clientele walking out. But, it was the only coffee shop nearby, so Hard Times it was.

It was after 7pm, so I ordered a cup of decaf. The fellow behind the counter, who had about as much personality as a toad, said they didn't brew decaf, they just did decaf americanos. That was fine with me, so that's what I ordered. The uncaffeinated one had tea. One thing I'll say about Hard Times, the price was right. Those two things cost me all of $3.

The americano was fine. It was decently smooth and the flavor was nice. It wasn't the greatest americano I've ever had, but I didn't hate it either. The ambience of the place was just not my cup of tea. The tables and chairs were a little scuzzy, there was strange artwork on the walls that I didn't dig, and the music - good grief, the music! It was loud, repetitive and very distracting. OK, I know I'm sounding like a total square. I'm sure this cafe is great for the nearby student population who like to huddle together feeling poor and misunderstood. The environment just wasn't my style, so I need to give this place one out of five beans. Actually, I could have gotten past the environment if the employees had been a little more friendly. The fellow behind the counter could barely condescend to talk to us and the cook glared at me as we were leaving. I know we're not cool enough for them, but cut us a little slack!

you can drink it AND wear it!

2009-07-30T17:42:00.005-05:00

When I think of the things you can do with coffee grounds, my ideas pretty much stop with compost. Or just dumping the grounds right into your garden. I can't think of any other good uses for them. Well, a Taiwanese company has discovered a way to make used coffee grounds into CLOTHES!

According to the Guardian, "The process of making fabric out of coffee grounds is very similar to that used to turn bamboo into a viscose-like material. The resultant fabric is soft, light, flexible and breathable and can also be used to produce an outer shell that is water resistant."

Apparently it only takes the grounds from one cup of coffee to make several shirts. This boggles my mind. There's just nothing about the texture of grounds that makes me think fabric. But, here you have it coffee lovers. If it's not enough to just drink your coffee, now you can wear it too.

We're totally not a Starbucks

2009-07-27T20:03:00.003-05:00

An interesting thing is happening in Seattle. A coffee shop opened up and named itself 15th Ave. Coffee and Tea. It stays open late, serves wine and cheese and hosts poetry slams. But wait a minute - the sizes of coffee you can order are tall grande and venti, and gee that cup of coffee tastes suspiciously like Verona.

That's right folks, Starbucks has opened a store and didn't use their brand. Their ubiquitous, most recognized brand in the world brand.

Why in the world would they do such a thing?

According to Barbara Lippert, ad critic for AdWeek magazine, who was recently interviewed on NPR,

"it's this huge corporate leviathan trying to act like it's all homey and neighborhood-y, and I don't think that's going to work. I mean, if that worked, if the little neighborhood coffee shops worked, why did Starbucks put them all out of business so easily? I mean, wasn't there an economy of scale going on for Starbucks?...

I think it makes some sense to them because it's more profitable for their real estate to be open at night. So that makes a lot of sense. You know, if the other Starbucks are closed after sundown, here they can serve liquor, they can have poetry slams or live music, but why can't they do that in the existing Starbucks and still call it Starbucks but Starbucks by night or something?

Why have a complete name change and a complete change of décor and everything else?"

What I'd like to know is if they think that no one is going to figure it out. There have to be giveaways, don't there? Although according to NPR they are using traditional espresso machines and french presses, and are roasting their beans in smaller batches...

Wait a minute - that sounds strangely like the way Starbucks USED TO BE when they were new and innovative.

Huh.

classic coffee Friday

2009-07-24T15:16:00.003-05:00

I unintentionally took a week off here. It was just one of those weeks, I guess. For this week's classic coffee Friday (which has become less classic and more contemporary lately) comes to us from Thailand and is completely appropriate for the end of a busy week.

Do you ever have times at work when you feel just like this guy?

classic coffee Friday

2009-07-17T15:56:00.003-05:00

Happy Friday my dear readers! I just love today's commercial. This is an ad for Illy coffee (ridiculously good coffee, by the way.) that takes place in an M.C. Escher world. It's simply beautiful! How many famous Escher images can you count in this ad?

a very different kind of boost

2009-07-15T20:36:00.003-05:00

Do you ever wish that people would have to consult you before developing new products so that you could have the opportunity to tell them what a very bad idea they have? The uncaffeinated one and I fantasize about starting a web site called yourideaisstupid.com. Seriously.

Today's bad idea comes from Malaysia where some Einstein thought it would be a good idea to lace coffee with Viagra and sell it as an "energy drink". According to Fox News,

“The coffee mixture had been distributed in sachets nationwide,” said a report in the New Straits Times Online. “Investigations revealed the distributor attempted to mislead the public by claiming the coffee mixture could provide an energy boost, besides being beneficial for men.”

Yeah.

If only they had asked me first. Then I could have told them to go back to the drawing board. Or get a new drawing board. Or stop drawing.

our lesson for the day

2009-07-13T20:20:00.003-05:00

Our lesson for the day comes from a gentleman in Fergus Falls, Minnesota who ran his truck into a house while trying to retrieve the cup of coffee he had dropped in the car. I know we all love coffee here - I mean really, really love coffee. But please, if you drop your coffee in the car, it's okay to let it go. I know, I know, you think about all the delicious goodness that is going to waste by the millisecond. I know, you think about the people who sweated in the sun to pick the coffee berries that became your coffee and you feel guilty that their work is going to waste. I know, you think about how you left the house without your coffee and then turned around to go back and get it only to have it spill, and doesn't that just figure? I know, you think about what a mess that coffee is making on the seat or the bottom of the car, and you think, "oh man, now I'll actually have to clean my car. I'll have to, like, scrub the coffee out of my car." And then you think that maybe you can get away without cleaning your car, and you think that you're pretty sure it wouldn't mold or anything, and isn't it kind of nice to have your car smell like coffee? See, I know. But it's really okay to let the coffee spill - because you don't want to end up like our friend in Fergus Falls.

classic coffee Friday

2009-07-10T19:46:00.003-05:00

This week's installment of classic coffee commercials is a great follow up to my last post. This ad clearly illustrates what can happen to you if you drink five cups a day to prevent Alzheimer's - you become as ornery as Ebenezer Scrooge and can no longer hang your tinsel evenly. THE HORROR! Lucky for you, the answer is Sanka decaf coffee!

Does anyone else find it just a little strange that the tinsel man immediately starts to divulge his medical problems to his friends? "Gee Frank, hurry it up a little." "Sorry Bill, my doctor says my tapeworm will make me tired and irritable."

Anyway, have a highly caffeinated Friday!

coffee and Alzheimer's

2009-07-08T20:13:00.003-05:00

Two studies just published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease show that coffee may help lower the risk of Alzheimer's and could even help to reverse the symptoms. According to a transcript of an interview on the CBS Early Show,

"Researchers gave the equivalent of 500 milligrams of caffeine per day to little lab mice, who have been induced to have the same kind of memory changes we see in Alzheimer's disease, and they found a very positive effect on their memory and thinking actions over a two-month period. So put another one in the column of a good effect of caffeine."

It's thought that coffee decreases inflammation in the brain, and so cuts down on the protein buildups that occur with the disease.

So, how much coffee do you have to drink to reap the benefits? The study says about five "medium-sized cups" per day. Done and done. I'm just kidding, I don't really drink that much! Actually, that seems like an awful lot of coffee each day. Sure, you won't get Alzheimer's, but you'll have such massive jitters that you won't be able to function!

cool coffee stuff

2009-07-07T20:28:00.003-05:00

Thanks to a friend for passing along this web site with absolutely eye-popping coffee cups. The bubbly glass cup in particular I think is just stunning! What I wouldn't give to get my hands on one of those! But, they were made by engineering students and don't appear to be for sale. What delightful designs these students came up with!

The bubbly design reminds me of a very excellent cup of coffee I had in Ethiopia. It was a small glass with the coffee at the bottom and the hot milk on top, hovering and blending just a little with the coffee below. It was almost a shame to put the spoon in and mix it, except that it was absolutely delicious.

But back to the designs. Elsewhere on the site they have a hilarious design for a coffee mug that doubles as brass knuckles! It comes in classic white and shiny silver, and I particularly like the photo that shows the mug in use! I'm not sure should be trusted with such a mug before I've had a cup or two in the morning.

classic coffee Friday

2009-07-03T17:35:00.003-05:00

Happy Friday everyone! Today's commercial is nothing short of ridiculous. It's a commercial not for any particular brand of coffee, just coffee in general. It shows clips of music stars, and football all-stars, and football coaches, and hey, we need to represent something other than music and football, folks. I know, let's thrown in Kurt Vonnegut?! This strange mix of people, whose only connection is their success and coffee (hmm, perhaps one causes the other?), asks you to join the new coffee generation and be a coffee achiever! Alright 1980's football man who I don't know, I WILL be a coffee achiever!

how late is too late?

2009-06-30T20:39:00.003-05:00

Why can't I drink coffee before bed like I used to be able to do when I was young a foolhardy? In college I could drink multiple cups of fully caffeinated coffee, roll over and crash. Of course, now if I have a cup of coffee later than, oh say 5pm, I lay in bed and think, "ok, go to sleep now...ok, now....ok.....now."

Was it because I was just that much more tired back then? Could it be that the drug couldn't overpower my physical need for sleep? Maybe, but I don't think so. Shouldn't the properties of the drug have some kind of effect on me no matter how tired I am? Isn't that why some people take speed?

When the uncafeinated one and I had just met, we used to go out to Perkins with friends after a performance of the play we were in together was over. That must have been about 9 or 10pm. There I would have a piece of pie and the BOTTOMLESS POT OF REGULAR COFFEE and happily shluck it down with no ill effects whatsoever.

In my greater wisdom I can't believe, first of all, that I went out at 10pm. That right there is a perfect example of what a difference ten years can make! If I tried to go out at 10pm now I would fall asleep at the table! That's way past my bedtime!

So could it be that I'm just more susceptible to caffeine now? I guess I would have thought that, if anything, I would have built of some pretty good resistance to it in the last ten years. It's a complete mystery to me.

How about you? Have you noticed any change in the way coffee affects you? Leave a comment!

why my breath smells great

2009-06-29T20:21:00.005-05:00

This just in: an Israeli study has proven that coffee actually fights bad breath. Apparently it makes the mouth environment so acidic that the odor-causing bacteria can't grow. I don't know about you, but I think this is very good news indeed. Not that I think that my morning cup can now replace my toothbrush (I'm actually kind of an oral hygiene freak). But, doesn't that make you feel a little better about your coffee breath? From now on I won't be afraid to come right up to my co-workers in the morning and, after a long draw from my coffee mug, say "hhhhhhow's it going?"

The article mentions that further study is needed to determine which compounds are responsible for this effect. What's I'd like to know is, WHERE DO I SIGN UP FOR THAT STUDY?

Classic coffee Friday

2009-06-26T14:40:00.003-05:00

Is it that time again already? For this week's classic coffee Friday we have a Sanka commercial. I love the opening shots - it's very mysterious, and that man appears so suddenly. (Whoa, where did YOU come from?) It's really an artistically shot commercial with sweeping shots and swirling cream. I think my favorite part is the intriguing yet strangely vague promise that this coffee will "reach back" and find taste buds you "possibly didn't know you had." I also enjoy the fact that they present the shape of the canister as a real selling point. As if I would really buy a product simply because it feels good to hold! Although, one thing I'm starting to notice about these older commercials is that they tell you pretty blatantly what to do. "Make some sometime soon". "Have another cup." I feel like today's ads are much more subtle, and more and more now they spin it to look like a recommendation from a friend. Very sneaky!

Turkish coffee!

2009-06-24T20:02:00.005-05:00

I've been intrigued by Turkish coffee for a while now and simply haven't had the tools to make it. Well, recently my dad took a trip to Turkey and picked up some genuine Turkish coffee. Plus, some dear friends who used to live in Turkey kindly gave me a real Turkish coffee pot and the cute little cups that it's traditionally sipped from.

So, why haven't I made it yet? I'm a little freaked out that I don't really know how to make it! (Yes, I know that the worst thing that can happen is that I'll do it wrong and it won't taste right. Not the end of the world.) But, I've been doing a little research to figure it out. Here's what I've found.

There's a great site called Turkishcoffeeworld.com. There they have instructional videos that make it seem very doable. Here's one of the videos they have.

So, the next step is mine. I'll be sure to document my maiden voyage into the world of Turkish coffee for you!

the daily grind

2009-06-20T19:26:00.005-05:00

The next time you're in your favorite Starbucks and you hear a loud grinding sound, that's simply the sound of the coffee giant trying go get a leg up on the competition. Starbucks announced that rather than having baristas grind the daily allotment of coffee in the morning (or the night before, as it was when I worked there) they will be grinding beans for the brewed coffee throughout the day. According to the Wall Street Journal as quoted on Starbucks Gossip,

"The changes are part of the Seattle-based company's effort to reinvigorate the 'Starbucks experience' in the face of competition from less-expensive rivals such as McDonald's Corp. and 7-Eleven Inc. With Starbucks' changes, customers will be able to hear the whir of grinders and smell the aroma of fresh coffee all day...Currently, baristas decide when to brew fresh batches 'based on multiple signals ranging from demand (quantity), to expiration and timing,' the new documents say, explaining that the revamped process 'reduces this complexity by eliminating many of these signals.'

Now, depending on how busy a store is at a particular time, baristas will use 24-, 12- or eight-minute 'cadences' to brew coffee so that no variety runs out. And instead of dedicating one coffee brewer per variety, the new procedures require that containers be rotated as necessary through different varieties so customers don't have to wait for a certain type to brew.

Some baristas said the extra grinding and brewing might slow service and turn off customers with added noise."

There are several reasons why I think this is completely unnecessary. First of all, I don't think there will be a big enough difference in flavor if the beans are ground minutes before brewing or hours to offset the slowdown in service. Secondly, it's not as if this really simplifies anything for anyone. I found it funny that in Starbucks' statement they make it sound like now the baristas won't have to worry about all those complicated signals to know when to brew the coffee. Yeah - complicated signals like being out of coffee or hearing the timer go off to mark when the coffee is expired. Now they'll just have different timers going off to tell them to drop what they're doing and grind coffee.

When this new policy goes into effect next month I'll have to stop by my usual Starbucks to see how the baristas feel about the change.

Classic coffee Friday

2009-06-19T20:35:00.003-05:00

I had so much fun with the coffee commercials last week that I think I'll make it a weekly feature. So, each Friday I'll post a new classic coffee commercial.

This one is really random in my opinion. The action of the commercial has NOTHING to do with coffee. The coffee really only features as a kind of afterthought. It's almost as if they're trying to subliminally link happy good feelings with coffee. (Brilliant work 1984 ad execs!) And is that Ray Charles singing the jingle?!?

Cafe Fair coffee

2009-06-16T18:31:00.003-05:00

I am finishing up a bag of Cafe Fair coffee. I bought it on a whim at the grocery store when I was running out of coffee at home. The bag looked attractive, I was in the mood to try something new and different, and the philosophy of the coffee company appealed to me. I waited to review this coffee because I just couldn't seem to brew it strong enough to tell if it was a good or not. At first I chalked it up to accidentally putting in too much water, or not quite putting enough grounds in the basket, but after a few brews with more and more grounds, I came to the conclusion that the coffee, which I bought already ground (because I'm lazy), was just plain ground too coarsely. I had to put way more grounds in than I do when I get my coffee at Starbucks and have them grind it specifically for a flat-bottom filter. Finally towards the end of the bag I'm getting the hang of how much I need to put in - it's probably double what I'm used to. It makes a decent cup, but I can't really rave about it. You might have more luck with this kind of coffee if you have a cone-shaped filter in your coffee pot. The water takes a bit longer to go through those, so it might brew up a bit nicer.

As someone who drinks coffee every single day of the year with very few exceptions, I'm turning on to the idea of buying coffee that is fairly traded and produced using sustainable methods of farming and processing. As a a constant consumer of their produce, I want the farmers to be supported by my purchase and to make a living wage. And as someone who plans to continue drinking coffee every singe day of her life, I want the methods used to grow and process my coffee to make years of future coffee growth possible. Practically speaking, I suppose this doesn't mean that I'll never buy another bag of coffee that wasn't made under those conditions. In fact, I have a preconception that finding coffee like this that is easy to get when I need it and that also meets my high flavor expectations may sometimes be a challenge. Already the grocery store would appear to be a bust. I'll keep you posted!

Classic coffee commercials part 5

2009-06-09T19:44:00.004-05:00

Now, this is not exactly a classic commercial, but once I found it I knew I had to share it with you. It features singing coffee beans. Need I say more? I have no clue what language the beans are singing in - Norwegian? If anyone knows, please comment and tell me.

Classic coffee commercials part 4

2009-06-09T19:20:00.003-05:00

Today's installment of classic coffee commercials features a 1950's era Maxwell House ad. This one uses the power of repetition to sell coffee - "difference, difference, difference"! And can I just say that calling them "flavor buds" does NOT make me want to buy it or drink it. Mmmm, flavor buds! Although I love that they put the spoon full of flavor buds under a magnifying glass. Ah yes, I see now, what a magnificent coffee discovery! But I still don't want to drink the results of anything that "bursts instantly". And that man's creepy smiling eyes peering over the coffee cup makes me want to tun on my heels run. Far.

However, I found it very interesting to learn that the tag line we all know, "good to the last drop" was originally part of a rhyming couplet.

Enjoy!

Classic coffee commercials part 3

2009-06-08T19:26:00.003-05:00

Today our classic coffee commercial has a touch a sexism. Ok, more like a kick in the gut of sexism. Your first hint is when the sweet but sadly clueless wife offers to make coffee for Mrs. Olson, whose car has broken down, and her well-groomed husband quips, "Oh honey, doesn't she have enough trouble?" Not only that, but the poor woman has to have it explained to her with excruciating simplicity by the good Mrs. Olson what "mountain grown" means and why Folgers is different. By the time the husband says with a little too much surprise, "Why dear, is that wonderful smell coming from YOUR coffee pot?" I guarantee you'll want the wife to knock over a cup of coffee and say, "Why dear, is that MY scalding hot coffee on YOUR pants?"

Classic coffee commercials continued

2009-06-08T19:03:00.004-05:00

For today's installment of classic coffee commercials, I found a real gem! These ads combine a precursor of Kermit the Frog with senseless violence and terror, all in the name of selling coffee. In 1957 Jim Henson was hired by Wilkins coffee to create 10-second ads, two second of which had to be a shot of the product. He devised two characters, Wilkins (clearly a Kermit prototype) who likes Wilkins' coffee and Wontkins, who doesn't. I'll admit, they are certainly attention getting, which I suppose was the whole point. These ads make me wonder what it would look like if Starbucks had an ad campaign to sell their coffee through threats of violence. You can read more about the Wilkins' coffee campaign and Jim Henson's involvement here.

classic coffee commercials

2009-06-07T22:17:00.004-05:00

I got a new computer the other day and can actually see YouTube now! Naturally the first thing I looked up was coffee. (Oh, don't be so surprised.) There are such wonderful coffee commercials from days gone by. Some of which I clearly remember, as I do today's entry, and some that were before my time. As we get going on this series, I would love to hear from you, my fair readers, which commercials you remember.

Today's installment is the classic Juan Valdez commercial. I clearly remember this ad. Oh for a coffee man to live in my pantry and hand me freshly roasted mountain-grown coffee in the morning.

Tip lawsuit update

2009-06-03T20:17:00.002-05:00

Yesterday the California court of appeals reversed the ruling that prohibited Starbucks shift supervisors from getting their share of tips. Wisely, the court ruled that shifts "essentially perform the same job as baristas". Clearly the judges of the appeals court read my blog! Thank you very much your honors.
Read the news here.

coffee on Arts Journal

2009-06-01T18:48:00.003-05:00

As a person who works in the nonprofit arts world, I frequent the Arts Journal web site. Today, to my delight and surprise I found this entry on the Dewey21C Arts Journal blog about arts education. The link between learning the art of espresso and arts education is maybe a little bit tenuous, but he posts some stunning photos of latte art and a shot of espresso being pulled. Several times in his post he mentions something I've never heard of before: the third wave of coffee. I followed his links to find out that the third wave is the emergence of a whole new level of coffee love. The first wave was the freeze-dried coffee era - people were drinking the stuff, but it wasn't very good. The second wave was the appearance of coffee shops like Starbucks that boasted better coffee and featured the emergence of home espresso machines. The third wave is less about what coffee gives us (a jolt and something hot to drink) and more about what coffee is. The third wave is about appreciating coffee the way wine lovers appreciate wine - its country of origin is important, the way it's brewed is important, the art of brewing it is important. You can read more about the third wave here. Page down to the header that says "third wave".

I'm back!

2009-05-31T17:07:00.004-05:00

It's been a while since my last post. I have a good excuse. On Monday the uncaffeinated one and I adopted a dog and my attention has been squarely on her ever since. Our home had been without a dog for a number of months and my dog-shaped hole was growing. Wisely, the uncaffeinated one plugged the hole before it became Great Dane-sized.

I need to give a huge shout out to Homeward Bound Rescue. They are a great organization that does important work. Our sweet new dog, Sasha, came from Missouri and was in sad shape. She was at a shelter and her days were numbered. Homeward Bound transported here to Minnesota (which apparently has one of the highest dog adoption rates in the country - go us!) and the director of the rescue fostered her at her own home. I emailed the director and told her what qualities we were looking for in a dog and she had several recommendations for us. No other adoption agency had nearly the level of communication and desire to find a match for us as they did.

If you are ever looking for a dog, I would first of all recommend that you adopt an adult dog. Puppies are really cute, but when you adopt as an adult you know exactly what kind of temperament you're getting. Plus most of them come already potty trained! Second of all I would encourage you to look at dogs from Homeward Bound. We were just so impressed with them.

okay, so I don't love it THAT much.

2009-05-20T20:28:00.008-05:00

My Google Alerts sent me this strange article about, well I hesitate to call it a delicacy. Perhaps my gentle readers will think that this blog has gone downhill now that I've covered one of those infamous "poo" coffees. I'm just fascinated that ANYONE would drink it. In fact, I have a suspicion that people buy a little bit just for the shock value, and perhaps a few crazy few actually brew some up and drink it. But who could possibly like it knowing where it's been. I mean, think about where it's BEEN!

"Called Kopi Luwak, it's an Indonesian coffee made from the faeces of a Luwak, a small cat-like creature native to the island nation's coffee-growing regions.

The Luwaks select the freshest coffee cherries to eat and once the bean passes through their digestive system it remains intact but is no longer bitter. Experts say this creates a sweeter-tasting coffee."

Um...sweeter-tasting?

"Bean pickers collect the animals' faeces along with the coffee beans. The excrement is then separated from the actual coffee before being washed and brewed up."

Now that's a great job.

"The heat of the initial brewing process eliminates any disease, fungus or parasite."

Oh, well, when you put it that way.

And now, my friends, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, "Please, whatever you do, don't upload a photo of the poo beans!" And all I have to say in response is - what kind of a blogger do you think I am?

How do you brew?

2009-05-16T09:48:00.004-05:00

The switch from buying coffee every morning to home brewing seems to be the it topic for the media lately. The Saint Paul Pioneer Press had this one the other day with a bit more of a positive spin: brewing your coffee at home is an opportunity to learn how to do it the right way and deepen your appreciation for really great coffee.

The article has some interesting information about brewing methods other than the automatic drip. I have done the French press method and like it quite a bit for an afternoon cup of coffee - I find that it's not as practical for my morning jolt as I like to drink several cups over a span of time, and the French press doesn't keep the coffee piping hot. But it does make a really delicious cup of coffee!

I am totally intrigued by the vacuum brewer.
"How it works: Invented in France in the 1840s, this method was favored in early 20th-century America but got muscled out by automatic drip. With the renewed interest in fine coffee brewing, the vacuum has made a comeback. The device consists of a glass coffeepot and an upper glass chamber connected by a siphon tube. Water is placed in the lower coffeepot while ground coffee goes in the top chamber, fitted with a cloth filter. When the water heats to a boil on a stove, it travels up through the tube into the top chamber to mix with the coffee grounds. When the device is removed from the heat source, coffee is pulled back down through the filter into the pot, finishing with a gurgly flourish. It creates not only a complex pot of java but also a fun show. Good for those who want to retain richness from coffee oils, have the patience to carefully monitor their coffeepot and enjoy a good spectacle."

Has anyone tried this method?

Everyone wants a piece of Starbucks

2009-05-14T20:41:00.003-05:00

While we're on the topic of other companies going after a slice of the Starbucks pie, Forbes published this article about how less expensive coffees are taking advantage of the current economy.

"Steve West said in a note to investors that Peet's Coffee & Tea Inc. and Dunkin' Donuts, owned by privately held Dunkin Brands Inc., 'will benefit as consumers trade out of specialty coffee houses to brew at home due to the current challenging economic environment.'"

A few posts ago I mused that Dunkin' Donuts coffee could be worth a try, as I had heard some good things about it. Then a wise friend and loyal reader advised against it, so I'm on the fence now. But this article got me to thinking, how much can you really save on coffee if you're already brewing it at home? A pound of Starbucks is what, $10? $12? How much is Dunkin' Donuts coffee? I haven't paid much attention at the grocery store, but I would venture somewhere around $7 or $8. The difference is pretty marginal for something you buy every three weeks or so.

So it's interesting to me that people seem to not just be making the switch from going to a coffee shop every morning in favor of brewing at home, but they are also opting for inexpensive coffee beans.

cheap coffee is bad for your health?

2009-05-11T18:38:00.006-05:00

McDonalds recently started an advertising blitz with the aim of making McCafe synonymous with quality coffee. Boring everyday activities like commuting and ironing are somehow chic when you do them while drinking a McCafe. Now, I know that they have captured a decent part of the coffee market already with their lower-cost coffees, but the idea of a McDonalds mocha makes me retch. I'm not a fan of McDonalds to begin with. The uncaffeinated one and I swore off fast food several years ago, and have not so much as yearned for a french fry since. Something about seeing Morgan Spurlock yack up a big mac makes you see it all a little differently.

So, combine this predisposition to dislike anything that comes out of a McDonalds with my coffee-purist nature and you have your self a big aversion to McCafe.

In this Chicago Tribune article, the reporter talks to an exec at Starbucks to get their reaction to the McCafe ad campaign. According to the article Starbucks has launched its own print campaign that says, "Beware of a cheaper cup of coffee. It comes with a price." Does that sound strangely like a threat to anyone else? It makes it sound like Starbucks G-men are going to come bust your sorry self if you should dare to drink a cheap cup of coffee. Or like some kind of public heath warning. Cheap coffee causes your stomach to corrode. Well, that one might not be too far from the truth.

That fresh coffee flavor

2009-05-09T08:28:00.003-05:00

I don't know about you, but one of the things that really gets under my skin is when the ground coffee at the bottom of the bag lacks that je ne sais quoi it had when you opened the bag. You know what I'm talking about - the first pot of coffee from a freshly opened bag just tastes so good - iconic coffee flavor good. And then when you get down to the bottom you start to think that maybe this kind of coffee isn't so great after all, or you can't remember quite what it was about the coffee that you liked so much when you first opened it.

This, my friends, is the result of of a flavor-decaying menace: AIR. That's right - that stuff that you breathe in an out all the time, every day is killing your coffee.

So what's a coffee-loving gal to do? Real die-hards insist that you must grind your coffee only right before you brew, since a ground bean has far more surface area exposed to air.

But I'm a lazy coffee lover who much prefers to have someone do the work of grinding for me. My solution, that some bleeding heart purists may still scoff at but it works for me, is to put my ground coffee in an airtight container. The grounds still get exposed to air when you open it to scoop some out, but I find that this keeps my coffee fresher than just trying to close the bag tightly. As the bag gets on the empty side, it's just impossible to close it well enough.

To be sure, even with the airtight container, the last cup is never quite as good as the first, but isn't that just one of the special joys of a new pound of coffee?

A few more details

2009-05-04T19:37:00.003-05:00

Since my post the other day about the court ruling against allowing tips for shift supervisors was based only on my own memory, I thought I had better back it up with some hard facts. What I had forgotten about the case was, not only did the ruling say that shift supervisors should no longer get tips, it also ruled that Starbucks should pay California baristas what they SHOULD have gotten in tips had there been no shift supervisors! (The class-action lawsuit was in San Diego county). The LA Times ran this article after the ruling in March.

"Starbucks got caught with its hand in the tip jar and was ordered Thursday to pay California baristas more than $100 million.

In a San Diego County class-action lawsuit, a judge ordered the coffee giant to pay back tips, with interest, that the company had handed over to shift supervisors. Some baristas could receive more than $10,000, according to their attorney...Starbucks said, 'Our shift supervisors deserve their fair share of the tips that they receive from the tip jars in our California stores.' It plans to 'vigorously appeal' and to seek a delay of the court's ruling prohibiting shift supervisors from receiving tips."

Now, since the ruling was made because the judge deemed that it violated California state law, I don't know if Starbucks will make it a policy across the board that shifts do not get tips, or if that will only apply to California. Either way, it defies logic for me.

Happy anniversary!

2009-05-03T07:53:00.003-05:00

Today the uncaffeinated one and I celebrate six years of marriage! That sure went fast. This means that I have spent six years trying to get the uncaffeinated one to discover the joys of coffee, and he has spent six years resisting. I have this vision of the two of us in our golden years sitting on the front porch drinking coffee together. Maybe it's actually tea in his mug.

Starbucks in hot water again

2009-05-02T18:37:00.004-05:00

In today's Star Tribune there is an article about Starbucks' latest headache. On Friday the National Labor Relations Board announced they they found reason to believe that the Mall of America locations have been guilty of labor violations.

"The board's announcement followed a three-month investigation of complaints made by barista Erik Forman, who has campaigned to unionize the Seattle-based coffee chain.

'Our right to organize has been under assault since the inception of the campaign,' said Forman, a barista at one of the two Starbucks shops at the Mall of America. 'We can only hope that Starbucks does the right thing.'"

According to Forman, Starbucks acted to thwart his (and possibly others') efforts to promote membership in the Industrial Workers of the World Sarbucks Workers Union, which included forbidding employees to talk about the union while working.

Now, I am not a member of a union, nor am I even familiar enough with they way they work to opine on weather unionizing would be good for Baristas or not. I am pretty sure, however, that mandating what people can and cannot talk about while working is stepping over a line. I welcome comments from people who know more about unions.

While I'm on the topic of Starbucks, I can contribute my two cents to something else that was in the news recently. A while back Starbucks announced that shift supervisors were no longer to take their share of the store's tips. If I remember correctly, there was a lawsuit that caused the company to make this rule. The argument was that the shift supervisors were essentially management, and so should not be taking tips from the workers lower on the totem pole.

Having once been a shift supervisor, I can attest that this position is not management. It's not even close. The position gets paid only nominally more per hour than regular workers, and they have a few more responsibilities, but that's where there difference ends. Not letting these workers reap the benefits of the tip jar is unfair. In fact, I would bet that in this arrangement, the regular workers are making more than the shift supervisors when you factor in tips.

true love is blind

2009-04-30T19:22:00.004-05:00

Have I mentioned lately that I love my poor little coffee pot? It makes my coffee faithfully every morning, it cheerfully announces that the coffee is ready with its endearing beeps, and the hot plate keeps the precious liquid scalding hot.

However, lately the hot plate has been, well, molting.

Now, let it be clearly understood that I have absolutely no intention of letting this little issue part me from the pot I love. The rusty color, while not exactly appetizing, is something I can ignore. The blackened flakes chipping off, kind of quirky and charming, really. As long as it does not affect the quality of my coffee, I'm content to let this be one of those things that exist in every relationship - imperfections that make your loved one all the more endearing. It may be a flaky, rusty coffee pot, but gosh darn it, it's MY coffee pot.
How can you not love this face?

How do I love thee?

2009-04-29T17:54:00.001-05:00

Sometimes, the best way to express your true feelings about something is through the universal language of poetry.

Coffee...this is to you!

In Praise of Joe
By Marge Piercy

I love you hot
I love you iced and in a pinch
I will even consume you tepid.

Dark brown as wet bark of an apple tree,
dark as the waters flowing out of a spooky swamp
rich with tannin and smelling of thick life—

but you have your own scent that even
rising as steam kicks my brain into gear.
I drink you rancid out of vending machines,

I drink you at coffee bars for $6 a hit,
I drink you dribbling down my chin from a thermos
in cars, in stadiums, on the moonwashed beach.

Mornings you go off in my mouth like an electric
siren, radiating to my fingertips and toes.
You rattle my spine and buzz in my brain.

Whether latte, cappuccino, black or Greek
you keep me cooking, you keep me on line.
Without you, I would never get out of bed

but spend my life pressing the snooze
button. I would creep through wan days
in the form of a large shiny slug.

You waken in me the gift of speech when I
am dumb as a rock buried in damp earth.
It is you who make me human every dawn.
All my books are written with your ink.

review: Cafe Latte

2009-04-27T18:56:00.003-05:00

Yesterday afternoon I went out to lunch with a friend at Cafe Latte on Grand Avenue in Saint Paul. As a sort of phase two to our meeting we went back to the line and got coffee. I had a plain black coffee and she got something yummy looking with whipped cream.

My friend's drink may have been better, but I'm afraid that I can't give Cafe Latte a very high mark for their plain coffee. The first cup was just ok - mostly hot and brown. There wasn't a lot of flavor and it was on the weak side. When you get a cup of plain coffee there, you get free refills. Always one to take advantage of refills, I topped off my cup from the pot of coffee that was upstairs. Sadly, that batch was weaker than the first. I almost wondered for a moment if it was tea.

So, while I love Cafe Latte as a place for good food, the coffee earns one out of five beans from me.

How buzzed am I really?

2009-04-26T18:40:00.002-05:00

Having tea for two mornings in a row without any negative caffeine related repercussions made me wonder just how different the caffeine content is between coffee and black tea. According to the Mayo Clinic's web site, an 8-oz up of plain brewed coffee has 95 milligrams of caffeine. An 8-oz cup of black tea has 47 milligrams. Interestingly, a 16-oz cup of Starbucks coffee has 330 milligrams! 12 oz of Coca-Cola has 35, and two tablets of Excedrin has a whopping 130.

So, while several cups of tea is clearly not equal to several cups of coffee, it must be close enough to stave off withdrawal symptoms!

No coffee in the house!

2009-04-25T20:11:00.003-05:00

You may have guessed that coffee is important to me. I'm usually pretty good at seeing when I'm nearly out of coffee at home and go out and buy more. Well, yesterday morning I used the last of the coffee and made a mental note to go out and get some. This isn't hard to do, even on a work day, since there's a Starbucks right around the corner from the office. I didn't think about the coffee one more time that whole day, and this morning woke to the awful realization that there was no coffee in the house at all.
So, I made myself a pot of black tea. And guess what? I didn't die. I didn't even get a withdrawal headache. In fact, I scraped wallpaper all day long like a trooper without a drop of coffee in my system.
But, I also forgot to get coffee today and I am far too tired to go out and get some now. So, that means it's tea for me again tomorrow morning. Bummer.

When will I learn?

2009-04-14T17:45:00.003-05:00

It's been a while since my last post - I look a little trip to the Yucatan, and have just been lazy since. I was expecting to have some good coffee fodder from my trip, but the coffee in the Yucatan was pretty average (at least the coffee I had. Perhaps there are places with fantastic coffee that I just didn't go to). Unlike Costa Rica, where any hole in the wall had incredible coffee.

We did, however, go to a chocolate shop in Merida that made hot drinks with Mayan chocolate that were very tasty. The lady boiled water in a clay bowl and melted in solid pieces of chocolate. Yum!

When I returned I bought Target's Archer Farms Costa Rican coffee thinking, it's less expensive than Starbucks, and other Archer Farms foods are good. Boy was I wrong! It was the strangest thing - no matter how much of the stuff I put in the filter and how little water I put in the reservoir, it still came out equally weak! it defied logic and the laws of physics!

So, after finishing that sad bag of coffee, I went back to the dependable Starbucks Ethiopian Sidamo. However, I have since heard that Duncan Donuts coffee is surprisingly good, so I may stage another experiment. The coffee snob part of me is gagging just a little, but the cheap part of me (not that kind of cheap!) thinks it's worth a try.

I can totally stop anytime I want

2009-02-26T13:08:00.003-06:00

My normal morning routine includes coffee with breakfast, the rest of of the pot going into a travel mug for consumption at the office. On Tuesday I had somewhere to be early in the morning and I knew that there would be coffee available there. So, I didn't make coffee that morning. I got to the appointment and had about three sips of coffee before I had to go into an auditorium where I could not bring the coffee.

You may be asking, so what? I'll tell you what. Later that day I had an absolutely splitting headache that repeated doses of aspirin could not quell. That evening I felt like death only slightly warmed over and was so tired that I went to bed at 7:30pm and was dozing by 8pm.

As I was brushing my teeth and hoping that my brain wouldn't come out my ears, I had a horrible thought: Could it be that this was all because I didn't have my normal dose of coffee that morning? No, it couldn't be, I rationalized. I ran the theory by my dear uncaffeinated one the next day (since I was sound asleep when he got home that evening) and he was pretty sure that was the mostly likely explanation.

I remain unconvinced.

A very caffeinated Friday

2009-02-21T10:24:00.004-06:00

Isn't this what Fridays are for - to be hopelessly distracted at work? I arrived yesterday with my morning brew in my travel mug as I do every day. I got through the better part of that, and then my next-cube neighbor inherited a small press pot from our boss, who had used it a few times and determined that someone else might as well make better use of it.

I also had a small press pot in my cube, which my dear uncaffeinated one gave me for my birthday a few years ago, and which had not gotten much use lately since I rarely buy coffee ground coarsely enough for it. Well, now that there were two press pots begging to be used, this necessitated a trip to Starbucks down the road to get some coffee.

While we were there, I discovered that Starbucks has discontinued one of my favorite blends of coffee, the Yukon blend. How sad! This is the blend of coffee that I stocked up on for months when I worked at Starbucks in order to use for my wedding reception. This was the good ol' standby coffee that always tasted good no matter what kind of mood I was in. Adieu Yukon! You were loved!

So, my co-worker and I went back to the office with some Kenya and made delicious pots of coffee. Ok, so not a whole lot got done while we were having our wonderful coffee fling, but, speaking for myself anyway, I think I made up for it later because I was mightily caffeinated.

And then that evening, for the third weekend in a row, I went to Kopplins. I introduced three more people to that wonderful place, but did not completely think through the merits of drinking a latte at 6pm.

Noooooooo!

2009-02-19T17:28:00.003-06:00

Can you hear it too? The blaring strains of "it's the end of the world as we know it"? Well, I don't feel fine, thank you very much! I was simply horrified when I read THIS yesterday. That's right folks, Starbucks is going to start selling instant coffee.

All together now: What are they thinking?

Seriously? Isn't that the complete antithesis of their brand? Their business was built on showing America what a good cup of coffee tastes like. Before Starbucks came on the scene, the majority of the population found gas station coffee completely acceptable. (Can you even imagine that the world was ever like that?) To me this seems like the ultimate in short-term thinking - purely an attempt to get their hands on a new part of the market to the detriment of the integrity of their brand.

Although, I was surprised to read that globally, 40% of coffee sales are instant coffee. Can that be possible? This business blog says that 90% of coffee sales in Britain are instant. That boggles my mind. But then again, Britain is not exactly known for its culinary brilliance, let's be honest.

What do you think, faithful readers? Would you give Starbucks instant coffee a try? Is this a terrible idea or terribly brilliant?

Kopplin's Coffee in Saint Paul

2009-02-15T15:27:00.004-06:00

Last Saturday a new friend invited me out to coffee. She suggested that we go to Kopplins in the Highland Park neighborhood of Saint Paul because, as she put it, someone had told her that the coffee was so good that it made a grown man cry. Well, that was all I needed to hear.
We were not disappointed.
I didn't cry, but my eyes certainly bugged out as I declared it to be the best cup of coffee I have had in the United States. We both ordered lattes, which were made with love and care, and which had a lovely fern-shaped design made with the espresso and milk. My first sip transported me instantly to a little cafe in Paris where the cafe au lait was just as smooth and satisfying.

A week later the uncaffinated one took me there for Valentine's Day. (Now that's love, isn't it?) I ordered a late again and shlucked it down like a thirsty camel. It was deeply satisfying. I think I've found my new favorite coffee shop. The place is small and hard to find the first time, but it's simple and charming inside. They have a small selection of board games that the uncaffinated one and I tried out on our Valentine's Day date, and also a nice selection of intelligent reading material. There is not a lot of seating, so you may be out of luck if you come at a busy time, but when it's slower it's perfect for lingering.

Future trips to Kopplin's will have to include some of their other offerings, like perfectly pulled espresso from their top-of-the-line Clover machines (which lets the barista control the temperature and brew time) or his brewed-by-the-cup coffee that can run you up to $6.00. After my experiences so far, I'm willing to bet that it's worth every penny.

Wouldn't you know

2009-01-22T18:17:00.002-06:00

No sooner do I blog about the good deal I found in World Market coffee, and the company decides to close ALL Minnesota stores. Is that Murphy's law or just bad karma? I bought a large bag of whole bean Costa Rican coffee when the news came out and plan to try to catch some closing sales.

In other coffee news, Starbucks was offering a free cup of coffee the other day to anyone who pledges to do five hours of service to the community. It's the honor system, to be sure, but so was their promotion that offered a free coffee to anyone who voted. It must have been a successful promotional tool for them the first time, since it seems like they would have to spend a good chunk of money on this. It must work to drive traffic into stores and to sell muffins (you get the coffee free, why not add on a muffin?), plus they get to look like promoters of the greater good. And, I suppose, if even a percent of the people who pledged follow through, everyone wins.

the perfect cappuccino

2009-01-09T18:48:00.002-06:00

I found this little blurb in The New York Times T Magazine about how tricky it can be to get the kind of heavenly cappuccino you have in mind to get. I mostly just love the picture of the cup of coffee! In my past life as a barista I could make a large heart-shaped swirl in my lattes, but never came anywhere near such a complex design (the large heart was not very hard at all). I'd love to know how people do that.
OK, now I'm craving a good cappuccino.

coffee on my pants leg

2009-01-07T17:59:00.002-06:00

Today at work we had a breakfast event to promote our International Chamber Orchestra Festival ( you should go - it's going to be amazing! www.thespco.org). I was talking with guests and buzzing here and there to help run the event, all with a cup of coffee in my hand (I got there at 6:30am, so you'd better believe that coffee mug was attached to my hand!). After the event had been going for a while and I had talked with some important folks, I happened to look down and saw that I had sloshed coffee all over one of the legs of my khaki pants. Great brown spots all down the leg! Classy.

World Market coffee - surprisingly good!

2009-01-03T10:05:00.002-06:00

On a recent trip to World Market I happened to notice that they had pounds of coffee for sale under their own World Market label. When I went they were $5 for a 12oz bag and on top of that they had a buy one get one free sale, so I figured it was worth a try.
I was pleasantly surprised by the quality. I bought a French roast and a breakfast blend and both are very good. I picked the two that came ground but that were not flavored, like caramel or vanilla - I just can't do that. They also have a nice variety of whole bean coffees, that you can grind yourself at the store if you wish, from Costa Rica, Guatemala, and other origins.
I recommend this coffee to anyone who is starting to flinch at Starbucks coffee prices but who just can't go Folgers (the horror!). They also have larger bags of whole bean coffees that are at least a pound and a half, if not nearly two pounds, for about $9.

poor little coffee pot

2008-12-18T21:31:00.002-06:00

I love my coffee maker. Love it. It has a timer, so I can set it up before I go to bed and when I come downstairs in the morning I have a pot of hot coffee. It brings me a little bit of joy each morning when I look around the corner into the kitchen and see that it has already done its work for me.

When it was newer it used to chirp triumphantly five times when it was finished brewing. Some time ago it stopped doing that consistently and I had kind of forgotten that it was supposed to. I had begun to listen not for a beep but for the sluuurp, sluuurp, puff whoosh to alert me that the coffee was ready.

On a recent morning I was enjoying my second cup, the coffee had been done for at least an hour, when all of a sudden I heard the happy chirp "I'm done! I'm done!" Oh, my poor funny little coffee pot.

A coffee miracle!

2008-12-06T09:21:00.002-06:00

Recently I ran out of coffee and had every intention of going out to get some more that day. Well, true to form I promptly forgot all about it until I was in my jammies and under the covers that night. I sat bolt upright and wailed to my non-coffee-drinking husband that alas, I would not have any coffee in the morning. I don't think he completely appreciated the gravity of the situation as he kind of mumbled something that sounded a little bit like "that's too bad" but could also maybe have been "cry me a river", I couldn't be entirely sure.

So, the next morning I went downstairs prepared to put on some tea instead (the horror!) and made one last desperate search through the cupboards for any sign of coffee.

To my unspeakable delight and surprise, I had a LITTLE bit of coffee left in a forgotten canister (I keep my ground coffee in plastic airtight containers) and just a LITTLE bit left in the canister I had just deemed empty the day before, and together they had enough for two whole cups!

When my husband groggily came downstairs that morning I squealed with joy that we had had a coffee miracle! It was like Hanukkah! Well, maybe not exactly like Hanukkah.

Thanksgiving and coffee

2008-11-28T21:19:00.004-06:00

I ask you, is there anything better than a hot, strong cup of coffee after eating too much turkey? I don't think so.
In the spirit of using coffee to help that turkey along, I offer this: Back in March of 1894 The New York Times published this article about the digestive qualities of coffee. Looking at the last few sentences I'm willing to bet that the experiments were sponsored by the coffee merchants of America. Yes, brew TWO pots in the morning! You should avoid those POISONOUS tannins!
Ah, they don't write them like that anymore!

off topic: nanowrimo

2008-11-26T20:44:00.002-06:00

During the month of November Nanowrimo has occupied a great deal of my time. Nanowrimo, for those who don't know, is National Novel Writing Month. The point is to write 50,000 words of a novel in one month. I had heard about it for years but never participated before. To be honest, I thought it would be a lot more difficult than it actually was. I thought that I would have to get up early to write before work (like that would have happened!), write over lunch and then stay up late to reach the 1,700 words I needed to average per day.

I was pleasantly surprised that that I could do about 2,000 words each evening after dinner in about two hours. Pretty painless. Those who know me well know that stick-to-itiveness is not my forte sometimes. I can start things really well. No one starts things better than I do. I may even stick with something for a little bit, but it's not all that often that I see something through.

I even impressed myself a little bit that I wrote about 2,000 words every single day this month. with maybe only one day when I wasn't at home to get to write. And tonight I passed the 50,000 word mark with time to spare!

It felt really good to chip away at something consistently. It helped, too, that the Nanowrimo site gives you nifty little graphs to show you how much progress you've made!

So how does this relate to coffee? Well, it doesn't. At all.

You've never been WHERE?

2008-11-15T13:46:00.002-06:00

I have had two times in my life when I have been told by someone with a straight face that they have never been to Starbucks, and one of them was last night. The first time was several years ago when I was in The Middle Of Nowhere Wisconsin for a wedding and was eating breakfast with my family and a friend at a little diner. We were, being the coffee snobs that we are, lamenting that there wasn't a Starbucks anywhere in the town (the nearest one was is Madison, which was nowhere near where we were). The very nice server overheard us and said,"What's Starbucks? Is that, like, an ice cream place?" After I picked myself up off the floor I explained that it was, actually, a coffee place.
The incident last night was more surprising because in Saint Paul, where we were at the time, there is a Starbucks about every two blocks or so. Four blocks if you're really in a dry zone. In some places in Saint Paul you can look out the window of one Starbucks and see another one. We were at a restaurant and the lady at the register took our Starbucks credit card (best invention ever. I haven't spent my own money at Starbucks for a long time). She asked me if Starbucks was good, as she had never been there. After I picked myself off the floor again, I told her to get thee to a Starbucks.
I got to thinking about how such a ubiquitous brand like Starbucks can still not have reached everyone on the planet, or at least in America. It's like someone asking, "McDonalds, is that, like, a place where you can buy farm animals?"

Christmas already?!

2008-11-12T17:08:00.003-06:00

Christmas has arrived at Starbucks. I had my first gingerbread latte of the season today - only now it's a "gingersnap" latte, which is really the same thing except it now has bits of ginger candy on top that immediately sink to the bottom and slide disgustingly into your mouth in the last sip. And the red holiday cups are here too. Kudos to Starbucks for coming up with such a simple thing as the color of their cups that creates seasonality and which becomes something that customers anticipate each year.

I also see that they have capitalized on Thanksgiving now too, with a Thanksgiving blend of coffee. I'll be curious to try it to see how it stacks up to the lovely Christmas blend.

Starbucks is not alone in starting the Christmas party early. Yesterday the Christmas tree went up in front of the Landmark Center in Saint Paul.

Now, I'm all for celebrating Christmas with gusto, but for me this is just a little too early!

Election day coffee

2008-11-05T12:55:00.002-06:00

I don't know about you, but I stayed up WAY too late last night watching election returns (only to realize at about midnight that the Senate race would not be settled for a long time). What a night! But 6am was pretty rough this morning, so post-election coffee was essential.

Starbucks had an interesting marketing strategy for election day. They gave out a free tall drip coffee to anyone who voted. Actually, the gave out a free coffee to anyone who asked for it because legally they can't discriminate. But the idea is an interesting one, and I wonder if they'll see increased traffic in the next few days because of it. I also wonder what this cost them across all their stores nationally.

They had a clever ad on YouTube for the promotion. Click here to see it.

Peace Coffee

2008-10-31T16:33:00.003-05:00

Check out this recent article in the Star Tribune about Peace Coffee, a local company that impresses me. Click here for the article.
What I appreciate even more than their environmentally responsible methods of distribution, which tends to be what they're recognized for, is the company's fair trade practice and the fact that all of their beans are shade grown. It's encouraging to see a coffee company whose business model is both successful and sustainable.

The article points out this interesting (and horrifying) fact: "Conventional coffee farmers receive only about 2 cents of the $3 paid at retail for a coffee bistro latte, according to TransFair USA, a fair-trade group." While not a good thing, I do think that this makes it sound a tad worse than it is, as there isn't that much ground coffee that goes into making a late. It's a very small fraction of a pound. If Peace Coffee gives the farmers $2 per pound and the average coffee company pays $1.30, either way we're looking a cost of pennies per latte for the coffee component.

Nina's Coffee Cafe

2008-10-26T12:33:00.003-05:00

There's a great little coffee place at 165 Western Ave. in Saint Paul called Nina's Coffee Cafe. It's in the charming Cathedral Hill neighborhood and just below it is Garrison Keillor's bookstore (which looks and feels like a bookstore ought to, by the way, just like the old Ruminator). I had a marvelous cafe au lait and the uncaffinated one had tea - from the Tea Source, our favorite place to hang out in the Highland Park area. The atmosphere was nice and cozy, but well-lit thanks to plenty of windows, and there were several nooks and crannies where you can feel like you're separate from the rest of the cafe. We didn't have anything to eat there, but what they had in the pastry case looked fantastic and they looked to have soups and sandwiches as well. The staff was helpful, courteous and fast. I was pleased to see the Peace Coffee logo on their air-pot and a sign at the condiment station encouraging folks to use a metal spoon to stir their coffee rather than a wooden stir stick.
I highly recommend this place. I give it five out of five beans for quality, hot coffee, great atmosphere and proximity to other great places to stop.

Costa Rican coffee farm

2008-09-06T15:42:00.011-05:00

The Uncaffinated One and I recently took a trip to Costa Rica. While we were there we took a tour of a coffee farm in the Monteverde cloud forest. There's a co-op that shares giving tours of the farms and the processing facility among their constituents. Each farm has a hectre or two of land where they grow mostly coffee, but also some bananas and other produce that grows well alongside coffee plants. We were lucky and were the only ones on the tour when we went, and we were guided by the farmer of the land and his daughter.

Here are some young coffee plants. On the right are plants just starting to sprout from the beans (unprocessed, obviously). The sprouts like to be kept dark, damp and cool, so they cover them with the banana tree leaves you see off to the side.

On the left are older seedlings. These plants won't begin to produce coffee for three years, so the farmer prefers to cut back existing trees rather than plant too many new ones, since after a tree is cut back it starts producing again in one year. However, he plans several years ahead so that he can have these young trees ready to produce by they time some of his older plants have died out.

Here you can see that his farm has coffee plants of all different sizes and ages all together. And you can see that the cloud forest begins right behind his farming area. They plant some things like banana trees in between the forest and the farm to keep some of the wild animals away from the coffee.

The plants produce beans in four cycles per year in Costa Rica, and these cycles can overlap one another, as you can see here. There are a few red beans left to be picked, and if you look closely you can see tiny green beans just starting to form. There are also a few white blossoms still hanging on. The farmer told us that we just missed the time when all the plants flower and the trees are just white with blossoms.

After we toured the farm, the daughter took us to the facility where they process the coffee. This is the machine they use to separate the coffee bean from the fruit. When you squeeze the fruit, the bean pops right out covered in a viscous honey. For most of the coffee they produce, they wash the beans in water for about eight hours to remove that honey, then dry the beans. For a smaller portion on the crop, they dry the beans with the fruit still on them. This was the kind of coffee that I bought to bring home, and it had a wonderfully sweet and fruity flavor.

Here are some washed and dried beans on the left. These will be roasted elsewhere in the facility and shipped. Some will be ground here for the local consumption. On the right are beans that have been dried in the fruit. These will be separated from the dried fruit and then roasted like the others.

And, to complete the circle of life, all of the fruit gets composted and turned back into dirt. Here's the shed where they keep all of the compost. They purchased some worms and then just chop them in half as often as they can to make more. The co-op keeps some of this dirt for its farmers, and sells some.

You have now completed your tour of a Costa Rican coffee co-op. Now, go get yourself a pound of some of the best coffee on the planet!

What's with the goat?

2008-09-01T12:17:00.003-05:00

As I was tinkering around with how to put photos and images up on the blog, I found this dancing coffee goat. What's up with the goat, you ask? Legend has it that the first person to discover coffee was an Ethiopian goat herder named Kalid. He stopped to rest his goats and found that one was munching on a bush with red berries. After the goat had his fill, he started dancing on his hind legs. The herder realized that his goat was on to something and partook of the red berries himself.

That was all I knew of the legend, and I was curious if there was any explanation out there for how eating the berries off the coffee plant became the more complex process we know today. How would one ever think to extract and roast the beans inside?

I found this web site for an Ethiopian coffee trading company and here's what they had to say about that part of the legend:

A monk who found Kalid in that invigorated state also tasted the cherries and took some and planted the seeds in the vicinity of his monastery near Lake Tana, the source of the Blue Nile River. He roasted and brewed the harvested coffee cherries and tried out the beverage on his brethren. As a result they were kept awake during their long prayers at night.

In 1999 I traveled to Ethiopia and visited a monastery on an island in Lake Tana. I remember seeing coffee plants as we walked from the boat to the monastery. Were those plants the descendants of the ones this monk planted? Who knows?

Recession coffee?

2008-08-30T16:36:00.004-05:00

Sometimes it's hard not to get caught up in all the hype about the economy. While the Uncaffinated One and I are not directly feeling the pinch, we have been trying to be smart about how we're spending money. In my eagerness to spend a little less on groceries recently I had what I thought was a pretty good idea. Our office provides coffee for free, so I thought - gee, we could really save some money over time if I were to drink the office coffee during the week, and use my own coffee stash at home only on the weekends. I thought - how bad could the coffee really be?

I should have known better.

I should be fair. the office coffee wasn't horrible. But it wasn't good either. And at first it seemed as though there were benefits that just might outweigh the somewhat unfulfilling flavor. Mornings seemed a step or two easier. I didn't need to remember to set my coffee up for auto-brew the night before, or fumble with the filters in the mornings when I forgot. The Uncaffinated one didn't have to make the coffee for me when I was too lazy to do either of the previous things - what a sweetheart! (The Uncaffinated One brewing a great pot of coffee is a whole other post!) And I didn't end up with a week's worth of travel mugs to wash.

But after two weeks of this, I missed the visceral experience of a good hot cup of coffee right away in the morning. It seemed a little sad to have to wait until I got in the office to enjoy my morning cup, and as I'm usually one of the first in the office, I ended up brewing the pot of coffee most mornings anyway!

And then I had my wisdom teeth removed and went two weeks without any coffee at all. No one told me I couldn't drink it during that time, but for a while there hot liquids didn't seem like a good idea.

Going back to my good, strong, piping hot coffee was almost religious. I had a fresh bag of Starbucks Kenya and oh my was it good!

So I decided to hang the savings, which the logical Uncaffinated One pointed out were not so great, and went back to coffee the way it was meant to be - enjoyed as soon after opening the eyes as possible!

J&S Bean Factory Review

2007-07-16T10:00:00.001-05:00

J&S Bean Factory
Randolph and Snelling
Saint Paul

On Sunday the Uncaffinated One and I went to the J&S Bean factory. We had never been to this location before (there's a smaller location on Thomas and Hamline in Saint Paul that we have visited before). This location has a fantastic outdoor seating area - great for a warm sunny day like Sunday! There's plenty of seating, wooden benches, cast iron tables and chairs, and a nice improvised corner booth. Most of the seating has an awning of some sort so there's plenty of shade.

If you know what you want at this location, stick to your guns! The staff member that I interacted with had strong opinions about what we were ordering. When I asked for an iced coffee, he said proudly that they have cold-brew. "Iced coffee is a sham" he retorted. Well, I'm of the camp that, yes, cold brew is the superior way to make iced coffee, but it is still cold coffee on ice - thus the customer shouldn't need to know the difference when ordering. I assured him that I knew the difference between hot coffee placed on ice and cold-brew, and told him I was glad they had cold-brew.

The Uncaffinated One wanted a smoothie and asked what they had. The barista gave the options of bottled smoothies (the Naked brand) which he praised as having real fruit. Or, we could have the coffee shop's version which he downplayed as being just crushed ice and sugar water. The Uncaffinated One ordered a hazelnut steamer instead.

So, while the staff came on a bit strong (there are miles of difference between knowledgeable and pushy) the iced coffee, excuse me- cold brew, was great! Smooth, not a trace of bitterness. The outdoor seating was relaxing and well kept, with potted plants on every table.

Overall, a fine coffee experience. I give it four out of five beans!

Good ol' Starbucks...

2007-07-06T15:04:00.000-05:00

What a perfect way to start out! I went to the Starbucks in the Lawson building in downtown Saint Paul this afternoon (very close to where I work...too close). I normally have a very nice experience at this location - knowledgeable staff, usually efficient. Well, today I got the new girl (you all know where this is going).

Now, disclaimer time, I've BEEN the new girl - I know exactly of what I speak. I have had that same look of fear and confusion on my face. Still, I feel compelled to share the experience.

I ordered a tall orange Frappuccino. OK, another disclaimer. I almost never get Frappuccinos. After being elbow deep in them for several summers, it's really only once in a blue moon that I feel like having one. I also almost never get something at Starbucks that does not contain coffee. However, my dad highly recommended this drink and I was about to take a walk across the bridge on a warm day. A drink that tastes like a creamsicle sounded darn good.

So, as she's making it, I can already see that I'm getting the wrong drink. It looked to me like she had put the coffee base in it. Sure enough, it's put up and called as an orange crème Frappuccino - and it's a grande size. Well, I thought, no biggie. It's not such a big deal to me that I want to make to poor girl re-do it. I figured it was probably her second day on the job.

So I take the drink outside and have a sip. No coffee. It's an orange crème Frappuccino with mocha in it....not even kind of close to what I ordered. I still drank it, though I wouldn't recommend that anyone order that particular combination on purpose.

Lest I become the kind of customer that I disliked the most when I worked there, I want to open up the question to you. If you get the wrong drink, do you make the barista remake it? How wrong does it have to be? Did you get skim milk instead of the 2% that you asked for? What if it's a strange frankendrink like the one I got today? Does it matter to you how much you paid for it?

The inagural post

2007-07-03T17:18:00.000-05:00

Welcome to A Bean to Grind!
This blog will be a resource for all things coffee. There will be reviews of coffee shops in the Twin Cities (and anywhere else I travel, which tends to include some pretty cool places like Ethiopia, China and Costa Rica), thoughts on brewing methods and equipment, coffee history and cultural issues, and anything else I can think of that centers around coffee.

Now, you may be asking yourself, what qualifies me to be the bean authority? Well, I'm glad you asked. Besides being a complete coff-aholic (as in I can't function without it and I won't admit how much I drink in a day), I'm also a former Starbucks barista. While I'm glad that I was able to learn as much about coffee as I did in my three and a half years there, let me just say that I'm unspeakably thankful that I don't have to go to work at 5:00am anymore (and so is my non-coffee-drinking husband who no longer has to try to go to sleep at 8:00pm to match my schedule)

So please, enjoy this blog. Give me feedback and ask me questions. Please suggest coffee shops that you would like me to review (in the Twin Cities area please) and topics you want to discuss.