Thought it was cool that they had 5 or 6 Varios with steel burrs for coarse. I've bought beans from them before and brought back down. I think one of their younger sons is the roaster, or used to do the roasting and sourcing for them, he was like 15 or something like that when they opened a few years ago. Not sure now. If you want damn good burgers and awesome beer, definitely checkout Clubhouse.
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I love me some burgers, but I don't drink.
Every time I stop in at the Dessert Oasis, I get a bag of beans and have a cafe mocha while I'm there. They make really good espresso, and espresso-based drinks. Sometimes I'll just have a double-shot too.
Funny, they got my order wrong as we were with a few people. I ended up with a Mocha but didn't care, it was delicious and perfectly balanced. They know what their doing there . Whenever we travel we always search the areas to find the more mom/pop type shops and roasters.
. Whenever we travel we always search the areas to find the more mom/pop type shops and roasters.
Funny, they got my order wrong as we were with a few people. I ended up with a Mocha but didn't care, it was delicious and perfectly balanced. They know what their doing there
That's a good habit too; magnitudes better than settling for SB's.
Agreed. Best to nip any budding SB habit in the bud, and that is best achieved by seeking out and patronising good, local coffee shops.
Ordered the following beans today from Northstar, a local(ish) roaster
![images]()
![timthumb.php]()
A real Christmas Cracker! Rich and boozy with notes of rum and raisin, spiced winter berries and orange peel perfect alongside a warm mince pie.
![timthumb.php]()
This contemporary blend is all about showcasing the very best coffees from the most recent harvests taking place throughout the year. With frequently changing components, it aims to promote seasonal coffees that are chosen for their interesting and fresh flavours.
A real Christmas Cracker! Rich and boozy with notes of rum and raisin, spiced winter berries and orange peel perfect alongside a warm mince pie.
This contemporary blend is all about showcasing the very best coffees from the most recent harvests taking place throughout the year. With frequently changing components, it aims to promote seasonal coffees that are chosen for their interesting and fresh flavours.
All y'all with your hi falutin cups o joe.
This is what I'm drinking tomorrow....provided free in my hotel room.
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Well, what it shows to me is that the standard of coffee served in hotel rooms is actually improving; and improving considerably and exponentially.
Actually, I'll happily settle for LavAzza in a hotel room - anything is an improvement on those sachets of instant coffee, which used to be the norm in hotel rooms, (or, for that matter, the little Nespresso machines which, granted are an improvement on the sachets of instant coffee, but which one sometimes finds in more upmarket hotel rooms)…...
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On this week's episode of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, I thought I spotted a row of Chemex's on the counter at the coffee shop they visited in Portland.
Also, I think my Brazilian coffee is waiting for me at the local Post Office as there was a slip in my mailbox for a package. I'll have to stop and pick it up after work tomorrow.
Also, I think my Brazilian coffee is waiting for me at the local Post Office as there was a slip in my mailbox for a package. I'll have to stop and pick it up after work tomorrow.
Well, fortunately, tomorrow morning I will not have to test the LavAzza, passing it up for a return visit to one of my favorite coffee bars on this planet....
Great news on the delivery. Be sure to let us know how you like it.
Yes, saw the Chemex lineup as well (I'm a huge fan of that series). I think they visited this place.....not Stumptown.....and they have some nice-looking offerings, including a bunch of Ethiopian offerings. Hmmm, may have to order up a batch.
Re LavAzza lurking in a hotel room, I'll take improvements where I find them. But yes, a visit to a cherished and much loved coffee shop is far, far better, agreed.
Do I get the sense that The Good Old Chemex has become strangely fashionable and popular all of a sudden?
I mentioned that they have just announced that an extraordinary version of their product, which they have named an 'Ottomatic', is to be sold from the beginning of January. No reviews anywhere, yet, alas, just intrigued reports ...
Ahh, great! I thought I may have been the only one to follow CICGC. I'm a huge Seinfeld fan and, obviously, of coffee, and who doesn't like to laugh? The last two times Jerry came to Michigan I went to see him. Plus I have his entire TV series on video and can remember just about every scene.
Coava looked like a really nice coffee shop and it appeared that they really knew what they were doing too.
I'm working a half-day tomorrow so I'll be able to get the coffee from the USPS early and will be able to sample it promptly too. I'm looking forward to it.
Ahh, great! I thought I may have been the only one to follow CICGC. I'm a huge Seinfeld fan and, obviously, of coffee, and who doesn't like to laugh? The last two times Jerry came to Michigan I went to see him. Plus I have his entire TV series on video and can remember just about every scene.
Coava looked like a really nice coffee shop and it appeared that they really knew what they were doing too.
I'm working a half-day tomorrow so I'll be able to get the coffee from the USPS early and will be able to sample it promptly too. I'm looking forward to it.
I hope you enjoy your coffee when it finally arrives.
Now, re the recently resurrected and highly fashionable Chemex .does one buy the classic (but handblown, naturally) version, in other words, choose the old tried-and-trusted but manual way, and cheerfully potter around while making coffee with it, or does one await, with bated breath, for the release of the new somewhat automated number, the one which goes by the name of 'Ottomatic' in January and see whether the wait and fuss are worth it ..?
And, as I am debating a number of other issues (internally), any and all further orders are contingent upon decisions taken as a result of such musing.
Mind you, I am running low on coffee and am contemplating another order; so, friends, has anyone tried Rwandan coffee?
As someone who doesn't like to, ahh, fuss around before a (few) cups of coffee, you may consider the Ottomatic. But then again that gooseneck electric kettle really all that it would replace (you'd still measure, grind, etc.), so.....personal preference I suppose. I'd probably just go with the classic.
Yes, I am deep in thought on this one; my instincts are to go with the traditional/classic version, while, at the same time, not seeking to add to my labours.
And, as for the definition of 'fuss' - I think, on this thread, that the terms covers a veritable spectrum of where 'fuss' can be found.
Irrespective of how little, or how much, other stuff I have to occupy me, I cannot ever see myself becoming a 'home roaster', much though I admire those who are. Indeed, given that I have just recently graduated to the idea that grinding my own beans is the way to go, anything which allows me outstanding coffee without the need for thought, concentration, or too much work is welcome.
The task of my first coffee in the morning is to enable me to face the day and function thereafter; mornings in my most recent posting were greeted with 'the boys' (and I miss them) making me two double espressos in fairly short order. This is because I am, most emphatically, not a morning person; serious thought (I am thinking about briefings and reports I have to give), distractions, concentration, anything resembling work is most unwelcome.
Hence, if I have a formal day (meetings etc) ahead, I plan what I will wear the night before, and give thought to how I will say what I have to say. Re coffee, a French press, or a Hario dripper (even the Bialetti moka pot is reserved for days when time is not a pressing matter) can be used almost on automatic pilot, and offer consistently good coffee without masterful effort ...
You're the exact market for my patent pending silent alarm clock. Just dial in the time you'd like to wake up, and at the appropriate moment an epinephrine autoinjector is launched from across the room at you.
You're the exact market for my patent pending silent alarm clock. Just dial in the time you'd like to wake up, and at the appropriate moment an epinephrine autoinjector is launched from across the room at you.
Hm. Most interesting. Fascinating, even.
I may even be in the market for the proverbial kick-starting of such a device, but I cannot ever see myself actually availing of it.
This is because that any sort of projectile launched at me - all unsuspecting - in those semi-lucid moments before daylight enters my brain, might be greeted (or interpreted) negatively.
For that matter, I don't really 'get' mornings; nor do I 'get' small talk at breakfast; above all, I do not 'get' those brutally bright and breezy types who positively beam in the hours before noon ..
I picked up the Brazil beans from the Post Office today, drove home and proceeded to do a cleaning before brewing. I cleaned out a Friis container, changed the CO2 thing in the lid and cleaned out the grinder with some Grindz and heated some water.
Upon opening the bag and after grinding two scoops, the smell of the beans was fantastic. I brewed the Silver Bridge beans in my usual manner. The taste, along with the smell, is great! It's not plain, but it's also not fancy or complicated either (which is a good thing to me). It's a rich, smooth bodied flavor, with very low acidity and almost no bitterness. These are two things I noticed in the batch of Tim Horton's beans I recently picked up and no longer care for. I can taste the oils of the beans and it is good coming via the French Press.
These Silver Bridge Brazilian beans are a definite re-purchase in the future. I think I like them even better than the Silver Bridge 'house blend' they sell - which is good in it's own right.
This batch was roasted 4 days ago, on December 1st according to the bag.
![2014-12-05 13.07.39.jpg]( "2014-12-05 13.07.39.jpg")
![2014-12-05 13.14.50.jpg]( "2014-12-05 13.14.50.jpg")
Upon opening the bag and after grinding two scoops, the smell of the beans was fantastic. I brewed the Silver Bridge beans in my usual manner. The taste, along with the smell, is great! It's not plain, but it's also not fancy or complicated either (which is a good thing to me). It's a rich, smooth bodied flavor, with very low acidity and almost no bitterness. These are two things I noticed in the batch of Tim Horton's beans I recently picked up and no longer care for. I can taste the oils of the beans and it is good coming via the French Press.
These Silver Bridge Brazilian beans are a definite re-purchase in the future. I think I like them even better than the Silver Bridge 'house blend' they sell - which is good in it's own right.
This batch was roasted 4 days ago, on December 1st according to the bag.
That sounds wonderful - I can almost get the aroma from Across The Pond.
For myself, I am now down to my very last bag of my much loved Los Immortales; no more until next year. It was opened this morning, and served in my Le Creuset French Press .
This means that I am also on the horns of a classic dilemma. I had held off ordering more coffee because my immediate & future travel plans are, shall we say, somewhat fluid at the moment.
However, further delay would bring us uncomfortably close to the Yuletide season; then again, I am not entirely sure where the very Yuletide festivities will find me ...
Perhaps you could find a local roaster nearby whereby you could walk in and walk out with a bag of beans, no?
As for the Yuletide festivities, I hope you will be around your family & friends before heading out to the next post.
Today, I went to see a local presentation of The Nutcracker with my sister. She actually won a pair of tickets by calling into a radio station and correctly answering a question, though I forget what that question was.
Perhaps you could find a local roaster nearby whereby you could walk in and walk out with a bag of beans, no?
As for the Yuletide festivities, I hope you will be around your family & friends before heading out to the next post.
Today, I went to see a local presentation of The Nutcracker with my sister. She actually won a pair of tickets by calling into a radio station and correctly answering a question, though I forget what that question was.
Ah, The Nutcracker! That is fantastic Christmas fare! I managed to see a live performance in Tbilisi one wonderful afternoon a few years ago, and it was simply magical. I hope you enjoyed it - it is probably the most festive uplifting music P. I. Tchaikovsky ever wrote.
Re coffee, we shall see. Re travels, likewise. In fact, in recent years, I have often found myself travelling before, during, and immediately after, the Yuletide Season.
I knew it!, I just knew it!
Though I have to call foul because I never once associated (or thought to associate) the color white with bitterness. I can actually taste a difference between my white mugs and my clear ones. I've always associated the color white with purity.
Though I have to call foul because I never once associated (or thought to associate) the color white with bitterness. I can actually taste a difference between my white mugs and my clear ones. I've always associated the color white with purity.
"Purity" and the notion thereof, is one thing; but inviting us to drink from glass cups is quite another. Anyway, I smell a rodent, or rather, I smell suspiciously convenient findings cunningly disguised as objective research. Call me sceptical on this one. (Well, as my nom-de-plume suggests, I call myself sceptical)……...
What about café-au-lait coloured mugs? Cream ones? Navy ones?
Now, for the record, I actually have a few navy mugs, and they all come with an impressive pedigree.
Two are exquisite beauties, with perfect shapes, lovely craftsmanship, neat handles, curved bowls, the very picture of Scandinavian elegance. They depict - on the side of the mug - a sketched image of the sailing ship, the 'Vasa'. This was the flagship of the Swedish fleet, which cost a veritable fortune to build and equip with the finest of materials, sourced with meticulous research and pride and costing the sort of fortune which almost bankrupted the Swedish state.
It was lovingly put together by the very best craftsmen enticed to Stockholm with handsome wages from across Europe. Unfortunately, it went glug, glug, glug on its maiden voyage in Stockholm harbour in 1628 when the idiots on board forgot to close the port holes closest to the water line, and, in a depressingly calm sea, it toppled over in full view of the watching King and cabinet who watched, horrified, from the shore as it sank beneath the waves in a dreadfully calm sea. The ship was retrieved - in an astonishingly good state of repair - in the 1950s, and an outstandingly good museum built around it. Well worth a visit. Great coffee, food, and yes, these extraordinary coffee mugs…….which I bought in the predictably excellent museum shop.
Another mug of mine is also coloured navy, but a deeper, darker, navy. This is a solidly constructed, sturdy, chunky mug with a picture of Stalin. Yes, that Stalin, the Soviet dictator. Needless to say, I bought it in the museum shop of the 'Stalin' museum in Gori, Georgia, (Caucasus Georgia) which is the town where he was born in 1879, and which still has a street - the main street, naturally - named after him, and which is also the only place on the planet where one could acquire such a thing. When I visited the place, a few years ago, they also had a massive statue of the local boy made good in the main square of the town which has since been furtively removed, in a nocturnal ambush smash & grab raid, by a slightly embarrassed Government, leaving the locals somewhat disgruntled. The statue of Stalin now lies in the grounds of his museum, which had run out of navy coffee cups the last time I was there. I did not believe that this was down to a lack of entrepreneurial élan on the part of local elites or entrepreneurs.
However, I do play host to guests who will only drink coffee from my 'Vasa' mugs, and there are one or two others, who will only drink coffee from my 'Stalin' mug. As with drinking from glass mugs, or disdaining elegant white ones, there is no accounting for taste……..
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