A Brief Note About Coffee

I love coffee...and I love it in many different forms.  At home, I'm generally buying different types of k-cups. Today I'm enjoying some Ethiopian Yirgacheffe from Green Mountain Coffee. My friend Ben recommended that I start buying coffee from places instead of blends. He has recently become a barista and is getting lots of new info.

I prefer a light roast coffee because I like the taste and typically don't mind that blast of caffeine that you get from a lighter roast. This Ethiopian coffee is light and delicious and tastes like many of the breakfast blends I typically like.

Now, I don't pretend to be an aficionado. For one thing, I almost have to have original Coffeemate creamer in my cup with my coffee.  I can hear thousands of coffee-geeks eyes rolling into their heads as I say this. But I like cream and sugar. I can't help it.  I used to go pretty wild with the cream and especially the sugar. I had no system. I just assumed it probably needed more sugar always...so I was known to put 8 packets into one cup. Crazy shit like that. I developed the stack the packs technique so people wouldn't be so wise to how many packets I was actually putting in. Rip up four at once and pour them all in.  These days, its one teaspoon of sugar and then I add creamer until that coffee looks about right to me.

Coffee is a continuing journey for me. One year I only used a french press and whole beans. Another year I had that old school drip coffee maker..One year I would add a bit of salt to my cup (a tip I got from Alton Brown).  This year I go back and forth from the Keurig and the french press. I have to make a special trip to find whole beans that are worth a damn and it's obviously more labor intensive to brew it with the french press. But when you get all your ratios right...you'll never make a finer cup.  

Sometimes I go to Starbucks. I'm only human. But I almost never buy a "coffee". At Starbucks I'm getting a mocha. Sometimes regular...sometimes raspberry! *gasp*
When it's hot I might get a delicious Frappacuino. I can make a better cup of coffee at home. Sorry Starbucks, but thanks for the mochas!  I'm having trouble coming up with a thesis for this post. I guess I just wanted to put it out there to the world that I'm a coffee lover. If you know me personally then you no doubt already knew that. I will usually have three mugs throughout the day and I'm about to go get my second now, so if you'll excuse me!

PS I'll have to show you my mug collection soon.