March 23, 2010
dear clusterflock
Best coffee.
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The coffee I smell and don’t have to drink
The kind someone else makes for me very thoughtfully when I am visiting.
French Press, particulars of the bean vary on taste. Unless, of course, you also want to talk about espresso based drinks which is a whole other ball of wax.
Whole bean from The Roasterie. (Kansas City) “City of Fountains” blend because I can get a three lb. bag for the same price as a one lb. from the grocery.
As long as it’s fresh, strong, black, and unflavored, I really don’t care.
I tend to buy Starbucks French Roast to make at home. It’s good, in my view. But like Cindy said, if it’s just strong without being bitter or too smoky–or too “cat butt” as Flannery used to say, I’m fine with it. Black is the only way I drink it.
Blue Bottle Coffee Company roasts some of my favorite beans. There are a few local roasters I like as well, Old Soul, for example.
If you are ever looking for a coffee that blows your mind out the top of your head and leaves you like a spewed out crack whore a couple of hours later (and I just know you are), well there’s a reason why this tiny Brooklyn coffee shop has queues out the door a lot of the time. It looks like you can buy their coffee online too. I can only stand a few sips of their brew before I’m a maniacal wreck, but I love it.
Ethiopian. Yirgacheffe or Harrar Horse. This is where it all came from, though the Italians perfected the roasting of it.
What’s your favorite Deron? Kopi Luwak? i.e. Thai civet coffee [eaten by civets, passed through their digestive system then collected on the other side... i tried it once & it was a bit bitter for my palate but it gets an A for effort].
I’m trying to figure that out. I read a survey a few weeks ago that seemed to show that blind taste tests of a wide assortment of coffees in America rendered at best a good rating — none were perceived excellent.
one of our good friends [who was just here a few days ago] we made in Kenya is one of the world’s experts in coffee. he is insane, he travels with is own coffee & mini-french press. some of the coffee he gave us [that he roasted on the spot] was just amazing, the best stuff being from the Ethiopian highlands, some from Kenya. ever since meeting him i always drink coffee black, if it needs milk there’s no point in drinking it.
I only drink it black myself — with the occasional mocha as a treat. my experience with Ethiopian coffees so far is that they are too acidic to my taste — to bright or citrusy. I like the muddier flavors of French roast, but that is probably an abomination to true coffee aficionados.
I love black coffee. Good black coffee. And I find that any coffee that was recently roasted – within a day or two – is going to be good.
That said, most days I start with a 4 shot soy latte (made at home) and follow it up with either a cup from the french press on my desk (black, no sugar) or a “triple tall americano” from Starbucks (room for cream, but no cream or sugar added – in this case “room” simply means less water). I might also have a cup in the afternoon.
I should have said, “Almost any coffee that was recently roasted is going to be good.”
Also, I want to drink coffee with Derek and his friend.
see that’s why you need to try that Thai dogshit coffee, the digestive tract supposedly takes the acidic edge off the bean. Oh, Tanzania peaberry is pretty damn good too, small little fruity beans. We brought some beans back from Nicaragua that are okay, just not a lot of ummpph to them. French roast is good, if not better than Italian roast. There’s two things to consider, the roast and the bean, and often when you buy coffee at the store they just tell you “french roast” and not what bean. I don’t know about the French, but Italian roast is typically East African beans, or at least i’d like to assume so by their presence & influence in Ethiopia & Eritrea, though i think the roasting is something they learned from the Turkish.
Cafe Du Monde (in the French Market) with beignets at 4:00am.
ha, next time he’s in town Michael i’ll let you know. My wife’s going to Nairobi in a few days so she gets to hang with him & drink his coffee [that he roasts at like 5 in the morning with some noisy contraption & all his parrots he has]. He’s the guy in this video & that’s his wife “Leadbelly” telling a story about the Hyena who sewed his butt shut [speaking of canines eating things... though the outcome is mincemeat pie]:
Oh yeah, Vin!
As Cindy said, fresh, black and unflavoured. Although, when in Crete I do have sugar – it seems to demand it. Perhaps I need it to deal with the mouth full of grounds at the end. One of these days I’ll realise when to stop sipping!
I like it bitter and spicy more than acidic and fruity. I like an americano. And black, always black. Except for one of those bomb-ass vietnamese coffees with the condensed milk. I LOVED it with cigarettes.
I love condensed milky coffee too. But filter or espresso.
I like Amanda and Michael’s favorites, though now Lucy has me wanting to queue up in Brooklyn.
Also, I should mention that since the flockers descended upon San Francisco I have been drinking two to four cups of coffee a day.
Kelsey, now I’m proud of you.
What about Denver? What are we going to drink in Denver?
If you pack the Blue Bottle, we’ll have a coffeemaker and a French press handy.
I would sooner drink watery dog shit than put milk and sugar in coffee.
And I guess I need to qualify that fresh, strong, black and unflavored also implies “decent” (i.e., no Folgers or the like.)
Also, I like the old Chock-ful-o-Nuts song. Which reminds me that I really like the old Lipton’s Chicken Noodle soup commercial song (where the kid dressed like a chicken sings “When I buy chicken noodle, I buy Lipton’s Chicken Noodle, it’s the only chicken noodle that’ll do.”) Likewise, I love the old Jell-O song (“Watch it wiggle, see it jiggle, cool and fruity, Jell-o brand gelatin. Of all desserts, you’ll love the one that tastes so light and makes such fun, get Jell-o gelatin and make some fun. J-E-L-L-O.
Now might be the appropriate time to tell y’all that I made Jell-O for the first time last night. I was tasked with preparing the Jell-O shots for my company’s happy hour on Thursday. Lime and Orange ones, made with Absolut Limon. I’ve also been tasked with making a hundred peanut butter and jelly triangles with the crusts cut off.
The things I do for my job.
I know a feller who’ll contend that Jell-o is not dessert.
pudding is.
I found out today that, in preparation for my upcoming colonoscopy, I must subsist on a pale liquid diet (which can include Jell-O). BUT, said liquids/Jell-O cannot be purple or red. Who the hell eats the other colors of Jell-O?
Fucking medicine.
Kelsey, will a coffee grinder be available in Denver? Because I need to know if I should pack whole beans or ground beans.
Oh right. Um, I will ask the oracle and get back to you on that.
If you need me to bring a grinder, I can do it. Don’t bring no ground already beans. I’ll ask our Roasterie guy what might knock your socks off (if he can handle the challenge) and bring a sample.
Apparently Mom’s got a grinder.
Any of Stumptown Coffee’s beans from Indonesia or Costa Rica. (Also Cafe Bustelo, when I’m broke.)