In The Interest Of Preserving The Integrity Of Coffee
Now if that isn’t one of the most pompous drivel that I have read for a long time (well, probably since yesterday). This is exactly what was going through my mind as I read about Jeff Simmermon’s experience at the Murky Coffee store in Arlington, VA. So what happened?
Simmermon reportedly ordered a triple shot of espresso dumped over ice. Now you probably know that this is not commonly done but hey, who said you had to drink coffee in a certain way? Well, the management of Murky Coffee says so. Read the barista’s reaction as Simmermon himself described it:
And the guy at the counter looked me in the eye with a straight face and said “I’m sorry, we can’t serve iced espresso here. It’s against our policy.”
This reminded so much of a similar incident that my husband and I experienced at a local Starbucks store. The coffee became lukewarm because we were chatting and smoking. So he went back to the counter to ask for it to be reheated. We know that purists disallow reheating coffee as the heat “ruins” it. Despite my husband’s repeated requests, they wouldn’t heat the coffee!
So what is the deal here? Preserving the integrity of coffee or giving in to a customer’s request? Probably because I am not a purist, I tend to lean towards the latter. We all enjoy our coffee in different ways, give us some leeway here!
Photo courtesy of Aaron Landry
This Police Officer Loves His Coffee
I didn’t think that this kind of thing still happened in the United States. Apparently, a Daytona Lt. Major Garvin has been loading up on free coffee from a local Starbucks store for the past two years. Now, there is nothing wrong here if the management offered to provide free coffee for the police officer, right?
The thing is, the story is not quite like that. Recently, the store changed management and Lt. Garvin was denied his usual free coffee. You want to know what his reaction was?
“If something happens, either we can respond really fast or we could respond really slow. I’ve been coming here for years and I’ve been getting whatever I want. I’m the difference between you getting a two-minute response time, if you needed a little help, or a 15 minutes response time.”
Oooh…talk about police bullying! Unfortunately for Lt. Garvin, the people at that Starbucks store were not sissies. A complaint was filed, the police officer took a polygraph test (he denied the accusations and agreed to the test and then failed), and was fired.
I was just thinking, this police officer really loves his coffee doesn’t he? I think he loves getting freebies even more, though. Maybe this is why Starbucks is losing money? Lt. Garvin is only one person but what if there is one Lt. Garvin in every other town in the United States? No wonder Starbucks is having to close a lot of its branches.
Seriously, though. This kind of guy makes it look bad for other hardworking honest police officers out there.
Of Flavored Coffee
I have nothing against flavored coffee. I actually like to have a cup of hazelnut coffee every now and then. Nothing really beats good old plain coffee in my eyes, though. Oh, I am sure the purists will scoff at my because I use a lot of cream and a bit of sugar on my coffee but at least it is plain unflavored coffee.
Why am talking about plain and flavored coffee? I read this feature in one of the New York Time blogs about how utterly ridiculous the world of coffee is becoming due to flavored coffee. The blogger shares his sentiments:
Maybe I shouldn’t pick on Green Mountain Coffee — they do fair trade, they work with Paul Newman, and so on — but this flavored coffee business has gotten completely out of hand.
These shots are from a gas station in Hatfield, Mass., and when I see these things — blueberry-, eggnog-, whatever-flavored coffee — I just have to laugh. And the descriptions! Here’s Cinnamon Cream Swirl: “The warm flavor of freshly baked cinnamon buns, dotted with butter, and swirled with sweet, creamy icing.”
I get his point. Flavored coffee is great sometimes but most of the time, if it is the taste of coffee that you really want, then plain is the way to go. Then again, this is just me talking. I am sure that there are many others who would disagree. Each to his own, no?
How about you, what do you think of the proliferation of flavored coffee?
Photo courtesy of y_katsuuu
Tale Of The Gourmet Coffee Beans
I love to read a good story anytime. It is not everyday that you find a good one about coffee, though. A reader of ours brought a web site to our attention, where a nice tale about gourmet coffee beans is being featured.
Happy Bean Coffee is a web site which sells the best gourmet coffee beans from all over the world. Just like any other online store, Happy Bean Coffee delivers its products to a wide variety of locations. More than showcasing various gourmet coffee beans, though, they also provide other information on coffee.
Back to the tale of gourmet coffee beans. Here is the first paragraph of the tale:
In the dreamy hours of the morning, the coffee bean begins anew to draw energy from dark, rich, volcanic soil and sunlight filtered through the remains of the previous night. The coffee bean stirs within and, to the first sounds of birds and the morning rituals of nearby inhabitants, the rain forest awakens around it.
Doesn’t that just stir up your senses? If you want to read more, I encourage you to head on over to the Happy Bean Coffee web site. I am sure that after reading the story, you would feel a craving to buy some new beans that you have never tried before. It never hurts to expand your horizons, does it?
Coffee And Atrial Fibrillation
I was not familiar with the term atrial fibrillation before I read an entry in the Atrial Fibrillation Blog. This condition is described as:
Atrial fibrillation (AF or afib) is a cardiac arrhythmia (abnormal heart rhythm) that involves the two upper chambers (atria) of the heart. It can often be identified by taking a pulse and observing that the heartbeats don’t occur at regular intervals, but a conclusive indication of AF is the absence of P waves on an electrocardiogram (ECG).
In simple terms, it is a condition wherein your heart beat is not regular. So what does this condition have to do with coffee? Apparently, coffee has been pinpointed to be bad for those who have AF. I remember when I was a child – the adults would say that coffee will cause irregular heart beat or palpitations. I suppose this was their version of the relationship between coffee and AF.
So does coffee play an important role in AF cases? According to the blog entry that I read:
Clinical trials have not found coffee or caffeine intake equivalent to 5-6 cups/d to increase the frequency or severity of cardiac arrhythmias in healthy people or people with CHD. A large prospective study in the US that followed more than 128,000 people for 7 years found no association between coffee consumption and sudden cardiac death. More recently, two prospective studies in Scandinavia found no association between coffee consumption and the risk of developing atrial fibrillation, a common supraventricular arrhythmia.
There you go – coffee does not really affect AF directly. Good news for those who have the condition!
Full Throttle Coffee
I would have thought several forays into higher caffeine drinks for cola companies would have taught them to stick with the classic formulas – the tried and tested ones. Apparently, I do not know anything because the soft drink giant Coca-Cola is coming up with a coffee beverage.
Thomson Financial News reports:
Coca-Cola Co. said Friday it plans to launch its coffee and energy beverage, Full Throttle Coffee, in the United States in August.
The drink is made with Colombian Arabica coffee and Full Throttle’s energy and vitamin blend, Atlanta-based Coca-Cola said. It will be rolled out in the Pacific Northwest and Southeast regions of the United States.
Full Throttle Coffee is part of the Full Throttle energy drink family, which includes Full Throttle Original, Full Throttle Unleaded, Full Throttle Blue Demon and Full Throttle Fury, the company said.
At least they’re using good quality coffee beans, aren’t they? I just don’t know if I would spend hard earned money on a product like this one. I mean, as much as I like coffee, I can’t think of a reason to buy Full Throttle Coffee as an energy drink. I’ll buy regular Coke when I feel like drinking a refreshing soft drink. I’ll buy myself a cup of coffee – either hot or frappe – when I feel like drinking some coffee.
Am I alone in thinking this way or are you guys just as befuddled?
Paper Cups Or Coffee Mugs?
When you go to Starbucks or other coffee shops, what container do you use for your coffee? It’s probably a paper coffee cup, right? I suppose it is the most convenient container for everyone involved. The shop does not have to wash mugs and the customer does not have to carry around something heavy. Yet if you think about it, there are advantages to using mugs instead of paper cups in coffee shops.
One, we have the ubiquitous issue of helping the environment. Paper cups are made from trees and the more paper we use, the more trees we cut down.
Two, there is the problem of taste degradation – at least for some people. I have never really experienced this but maybe because this is due to the fact that my coffee never stays in the cup for long. Rands of Rands In Repose actually brought this up:
In fact, I’m pissed at paper. Forget about the environmental guilt, cups made of paper are a sure fire way to ruin any cup of coffee because they change the taste. Coffee mugs are the only way to go and I’ve spent a lot more time fretting about mugs than paper.
Starbucks encourages its patrons not to use paper cups, did you know that? If you use your Starbucks mug or cup, you get a certain amount off the coffee price. The discount is not big, but it’s a discount nonetheless. Coffee Bean serves dine-in coffee in mugs – for what reason, I do not know. I guess this is just a small reminder – we can help the environment in our own little way and have great tasting coffee at the same time.
Photo courtesy of StarbuckGuy
People Spending Less On Coffee
Tell me something that I do not already know! For the past month or so, I have noticed that people at my office did not go to Starbucks as often as they used to do – myself included. It used to be that we would go almost everyday, especially if we had a particularly long meeting. We definitely needed grandes during those times. Today, though, it is either we brew our own pot at the office – we’re lucky to have a drip coffee machine, we just take turns buying the beans – or we buy cheaper coffee at a local store.
It seems that the rest of the United States is doing the same thing. Based on Kelly Blue Book’s monthly survey:
The June 2008 study results reveal that 28 percent of new-car shoppers have stopped going to Starbucks or other coffee houses entirely, and 21 percent indicate they are going less often due to skyrocketing gas prices.
Though the study focused on new-car shoppers, I would not be surprised to hear the same trend happening with other groups of people. Imagine spending $2 on Starbucks a day. Do a little math – this adds up to $40 a month (5-day week) and $480 a year! What if you used that money for gas instead? You’d be able to buy 120 gallons of gas at $4 per gallon.
Not a surprising result then, huh? It’s perfectly normal when hard economic times hit, the non-essentials are first to go…
How often do you still go to Starbucks or any other coffee shop for that matter?
Cheese On Your Coffee, Anyone?
Uh, I don’t know about that. I mean, my second favorite drink in the whole wide world is coffee (first is water – yeah I am boring) and I can’t get enough of various types of cheese (check my last grocery bill and you’ll see LOTS of different cheese in there). I have not really thought of mixing the two together, have you?
This girl in Canada, Laura Perry, thinks otherwise and judges of the Eastern Regional Barista Championship in Montreal agree with her! The story featured in Ottawa Citizen narrates her victory:
Mascarpone cheese is not the first ingredient the average coffee drinker would put into an espresso. But Kanata’s Laura Perry is no ordinary coffee aficionado, using the unusual concoction to win the Eastern Regional Barista Championship this week in Montreal.
The 22-year-old’s victory will make her the only Ottawa resident to compete in October at the Canadian National Barista Championships, the Grey Cup of competitive coffee-making in Canada.
The drink, named Mascarpone Macchiato, is a shot of espresso marked with a bit of steam milk. It is blended with a variety of ingredients, including whipped mascarpone cheese, sugar cane and cinnamon bark.
For those who wince at cheese and coffee, Perry says she uses mascarpone for its light cream qualities. “It doesn’t really taste like cheese.”
For someone who likes cheese, I am pretty ignorant about a lot of types and I have not heard of mascarpone before. I found this at Wikipedia:
Mascarpone is a triple-cream cheese (though more accurately a lightly-whipped cream) made from crème fraîche, denatured with tartaric acid. Mascarpone is milky-white in color and is easily spread. When fresh, it smells like milk and cream. It is used in various dishes of the Lombardy region of Italy, where it is a specialty. It is a main ingredient of tiramisu.
I feel a bit stupid as I love tiramisu but now I understand how mascarpone can go well with coffee. I wonder if we’ll ever get to taste the likes of this coffee?
Coffee Maker Poses Security Risks
I never even knew that there is a coffee maker that can be connected to the Internet! Apparently, there is such a product and it poses certain security risks. I read this on CNET:
An Australian man has discovered security vulnerabilities in his Internet-connected coffee maker that could allow a remote attacker to not only take over his Windows XP-based PC but also make his coffee too weak.
Craig Wright, a risk advisory services manager at professional services firm BDO, found several security holes, including a buffer overflow in the Internet Connection software that links his Jura F90 coffee maker to his PC.
I don’t know about you but this is just too funny. I mean, I love coffee but why the heck would I get a coffee maker that I can connect to the Internet, especially one that goes for a hefty USD 2,000? For one, my apartment is small enough that I only need to take 5 steps to go from my bedroom to where my coffee maker is at. More so, I don’t think I have that much money lying around just to spend on something that may not be really necessary.
People say that Internet-connected devices seem to be what’s in store for the future. I love toys and gadgets, there is no doubt about that, but at this point, I cannot understand why I would want to get them. Except for the reputation points, I guess.
