Eight O'Clock: Central Highlands

From time to time I review what I lovingly call grocery store coffee(whole bean). We had run out of coffee, and I needed to get an emergency coffee. Mark told me, "Get Eight O'Clock if you have to." I did. I noticed, in addition to the new packaging, there are different varieties to choose from. I saw one marked Central Highlands, so I grabbed that one.

This is a dark roast coffee, so already I am thinking it might have a burnt taste. Since more and more store coffees are putting best of dates on their label, I am using that to judge how fresh it might be. I passed on the bag which had a date of 2/1/2014. Poor coffee. It's been out there a while. This one had a June date, so I figured it was "fresher."

Eight O'Clock describes this coffee as a blend of coffees from the mountains of Central America. 50% of the beans come from Rainforest Alliance Certified coffee, which made me wonder the rest came from. They say this coffee has subtle cocoa notes, and a mellow, spicy finish. Can it be mellow and spicy? I made some this morning.

When I first sip, the overriding taste is a bland burnt taste. Once it's in my mouth a few seconds, I begin to taste something chocolate like. The aftertaste is stale. I do get a sense this is a strongish coffee, but I think the roasting and the age have zapped it of a lot of it's flavor. On our Cher slapping scale, this is a 4, you're aware it's coffee, but it's not waking you up.

I did say this was emergency coffee, but I would not recommend this if you wanted to serve it to friends. Friendemies maybe, but your friends.

Charlie

Music, Coffee, Breakdancing!

A friend of mine share this with me today. I think it's been on various coffee sites. I have also see it at Daily Coffee News, but for those who haven't seen it.....

Music and Coffee

This morning as I read about the passing of folk legend Pete Seeger, I thought about the connection music has to coffee. When I lived in Nashville, our cafe had a weekly songwriters night. This is when aspiring musicians, and some more famous ones try out new material on an audience.

Coffee houses for generations have been places of performances. Think back to the hip scenes in 1950s movies or TV shows, and there were people dressed in black, singing, or reciting poetry. It's not untypical to see a sound system in a coffee house, as they are welcoming to performers.

So why coffee houses? No doubt the free space, or at least limited rental price is an attraction, but there's something more. Coffee and music have a communal nature. People come together over both. I remember during the songwriters nights how performers would interact with each other. There was a fellowship, a bond, which made the whole evening feel like a party in your living room.  The audiences for these nights were also very relaxed, and pleased to be around each other. I loved standing behind the counter and taking in the sight.

Pete Seeger popularized songs like "This Land is Your Land" and "We Shall Overcome". He wrote "If I Had a Hammer." The musicians he inspired included John Mellencamp, Bruce Springsteen, Joan Baez, Arlo Guthrie, Rufus Wainright, and so many more. No doubt at some point, the musicians brought their music, and their sense of community to a local coffee house, just as Pete Seeger did.

This morning I raise a cup in honor of Pete Seeger.

Charlie

Three Beans Coffee Review: Whole Foods on a Budget

Typically when you think of Whole Foods grocery stores, you smirk and think, "Whole Paycheck." Today I'm going to tell you that isn't always the case. There's another store out there challenging Whole Foods for the organic/specialty/natural food market - Trader Joe's. Trader Joe's has decent whole bean coffee they offer at a fairly low price. I've reviewed a couple of those coffees in the past. This week I learned Whole Foods offers low priced whole bean coffee as well - Three Beans is the name.

Typically Whole Foods promotes their Allegro Coffee, which is coffee they source and roast.  On my latest trip to the store, I notices the cans of Three Beans. The cans cost $5.99. The typical Allegro Coffee is $14.99-17.99 a bag. Since I have had the canned beans from Trader Joe's, I thought I would look this over.

In this case, I selected the dark roast. Here is the description from the can:

Our Three Beans Coffee is crafted from some of the most loved coffee around. It's them ultra-deep roasted to deliver that famous West Coast roast style many of us have come to love.



Once I opened the can, I saw some dark shiny beans in there. The aroma had a typical smokey dark roast smell. Nothing smelled burnt like some dark roasts do. Then I brewed some via the French Press.

The result? The coffee tastes as smokey as it smells. There is a full bodied flavor. Nothing tea-like in taste. I'm not sure I tasted hints of anything in particular, because the roasting seems to have taken that away from the coffee. On our Cher slapping scale....this is a 9. This coffee WILL wake you up, but won't tell you to "Snap out of it!" The "best by" date listed 11/6/2014, so I will assume this is a relatively fresh batch of coffee. There were cans which had a "best of" date listed as 3 weeks from now. Those were never options. I thought the taste was ok. I could tell this was not the best quality of coffee. Who knows, maybe this is left over beans from when Allegro roasts their coffees.

Still if you are on a budget, I would recommend this. My friend Kris shared a comment a friend of hers made on Facebook about Folgers, and how bad it was. In the note, she said she was going for value. There is no value in bad coffee. If you want to spend less on a decent coffee, I recommend Three Beans Coffee.

To be honest though, the better value is still a pricier, better coffee, when you do the math, you get a lot of value from a $14.99-$17.99 coffee.

Charlie

I'll Have a Vanilla Hazelnut Peppermint Cherry Flavored Coffee

There are coffee people out there who gasp at the thought of putting Splenda and Soy Creamer into coffee. I sometimes call those people snobs. They're the folks who take coffee black, so they can taste all the natural taste they can out of it. They thumb their nose at anything that isn't the pure coffee.

I don't consider myself a snob, but there is one thing I hate - flavored coffee. It doesn't matter to me what kind of shot you put in the coffee, I think it just ruins the coffee. To be clear, I'm not talking about coffee drinks like lattes, or mochas. I mean coffee.

So what's the problem? Years ago, when I was Cappuccino Maker to the Stars, the cafe where I worked brewed Hazelnut coffee. It smelled fine. I like the smell combination. The taste? O!M!G! That was some nasty stuff. It tasted like brown hazelnut flavored water. If you let it sit a bit, it tasted even worse - like brown hazelnut flavored water, with a hint of cardboard.

If you need all those flavors covering the flavor of the coffee, why are you drinking the coffee? You have lost what is unique about coffee. When you put something in the coffee, I think it should be to enhance, not cover the flavor. It's like makeup(you ladies will understand this), you want to enhance your beauty, not cover it to the point you look like Tammy Faye crying on TV.

That farmer in Costa Rica, Brazil, Indoneisa or Ethiopia would be shocked at what we do to the product they worked so hard to cultivate. My suggestion? Back away form the syrup. Sugar, sweetener, cream, milk, soy creamer, are fine, or just simply black. My other suggestion? Have some coffee with your extras, and savor the coffee.

Charlie

Drink Local

The other day at work, I was told we were going to create an event, which would involve local coffee people. I was excited, as this was something I suggested a couple years ago, but of course was now being told how it was the bosses idea(isn't that always the case). I suggested some local coffee roasters we could approach to work with, and was told the following:

"Well _______(name withheld) thought the Starbucks down the street would be great, or that shop near you might work."

I said, those were hardly local artisan of coffee, and anyone could get those coffees. The response to that was, "They're local."

What is ironic is we have events with local beer brewers because we want to highlight local craft beers, but when I said there were local coffee roasters who would love to participate and highlight their coffees, I got nothing.

My issues with the bosses aside, going to Starbucks is not drinking local. That money is not staying in this community. A place like Bee Coffee Roasters who live here, work here and grow their business here, ARE local, and should be given the opportunity to thrive. Just because your friends' teenage daughter is a barista at Starbucks, doesn't mean it's a local business.

To be fair, Starbucks does try to be a good local partner in communities. I appreciate them for that. I just think if you are going to think locally, you should do it LOCALLY.

Charlie

News From Around the Coffee World

I wanted share three news items which caught my eye this morning.....

1) Intelligentsia is about to release three coffees almost all of us have never tried. Sprudge interviews Intelligentsia co-founder Goeff Watts about the coffees, where the came from, and how they were developed. Now I got to find $50 to try this.

http://sprudge.com/cafe-inmaculada.html


2) Hawaiian coffee school? Sign me up. Daily Coffee News introduces us to a new coffee school. Let's see....coffee....Hawaii....coffee.....Hawaii.....ok, I'll go.

http://dailycoffeenews.com/2014/01/21/hawaiis-daylight-mind-launches-coffee-school-concept/

3) Ethiopia Coffees Rule Good Food Awards. According to Daily Coffee News, 9 of the 14 winners of this year's Good Food Awards Coffee division were coffees from Ethiopia. I notice a trend.

http://dailycoffeenews.com/2014/01/20/here-are-your-2014-good-food-award-coffee-winners/

Charlie

What to Eat?

Pairings are also part of the coffee experience. Just like you would pair a fine wine with a meal, there are opportunities to pair foods and meals with coffee. The meal we most think of in this respect is breakfast.

Breakfast is the morning meal, and most drink our coffee in the morning. So it makes sense that we might make some interesting pairings at this meal. I'm a pancakes guy. For this post, I will talk about blueberry pancakes. Now I'm not talking about what IHOP serves you, which is a compote over buttermilk pancakes doused in whipped cream. Ugh! I mean those from scratch blueberry buttermilk pancakes mom used to make, where you cut into the pancakes, and the juice inside the pancakes would squirt a little. Add some REAL maple syrup, and that is good stuff.

For the coffee, I suggest a coffee which floral or fruity notes in it. Central American coffees are good for this. I am thinking of some roasts from Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Ethiopian coffees are also a good pair to go with the pancakes.

Now if you are more of a coffee cake kind of person, you might want a coffee which has more chocolate hints in it. Mexican coffees from Chiapas are an example of this, as are many of the Indonesian coffees - a Sumatra comes to mind. Coffee cakes can be a bit heavy(depend on the cake), so the more Earthy flavors of these coffees I think are ideal.

So what if you aren't a morning person? The other time we think of coffee is after a really good dinner. This of course means dessert. A mistake I think a good many restaurants make, is to serve dark roasts after dinner. I feel a dark roast can over power the pastry or ice cream we are eating, so I recommend something like a Tanzanian Peaberry. I find the coffee to taste like a light tea, which blends more with the creme brûlée, red velvet cake, or whatever sweet you might be indulging in.

Well look at that....I'm hungry now after all this talk of food. So what goes with my Honey Nut Cheerios? This morning it's a Starbucks Thanksgiving Blend. It's a dark roast....just so-so, but I am loving the Cheerios!

Charlie

Dangerous Grounds

Coffee + Indiana Jones = "Dangerous Grounds." That is really the only way I can describe this reality how on The Travel Channel. If you haven't seen it, the show follows the adventures of Todd Charmichel, founder of La Colombe - http://www.lacolombe.com, as he journeys to exotic places in search of new, interesting and undiscovered coffees.

In an episode I watched recently, Charmichel traveled to Ethiopia, the birthplace of coffee, to look for a new coffee. His adventure pitted him against coffee cartels, government officials, hyenas, and locals who were initially wary of him.

Sometimes there is an adventure, sometimes, it seems a bit over the top. Either way, this is an entertaining show, with a great way to show viewers just how difficult and dangerous producing coffee can be.

The second season will premiere on January 28 at 9pm ET. In this first episode, Todd goes to Nepal. I'll be honest, I didn't know they grew coffee in Nepal, but with the altitude, it makes sense. Should be pretty interesting.

http://www.travelchannel.com/tv-shows/dangerous-grounds

Charlie

The Anticipation of the First Cup

One of the things I think about before my head hits the pillow each night, is that first cup of coffee in the morning. What addiction? If I have different coffees in the house, I think about which one to brew and how to brew it. Mark doesn't think about it, because he is just happy to have a good cup of coffee that doesn't have Folgers on the label.

What I like about trying different brewing methods is actually watching it happen. To be honest, it's pretty boring to sit in front of your Mr. Coffee and watch coffee come down from a mysterious covered cone. Once you use a French Press or Chemex, you feel more involved in the process and it's like you're creating something.

Did I mention grinding the beans? You got to measure that right, and then it's a game. You want to grind just right, not too fine, not too coarse.

Then there's that first sip.....did you make it right? Is too strong? Is it weak? You just want to be sure you made a good cup of coffee. Then you sip it....and 9 times out of 10...Ahhhhhhhhh!

I know there is an art to coffee making, I mean come on, look at all the cool crewing methods. Maybe that plays into it? Maybe it's just an obsession.  Still I love waiting for the first cup of the day.

Charlie

More Mixed Beans

We've all done it. Sometimes we do it with great success. Sometimes we want to spit out the coffee, wash our mouths, and try to forget what we just had. I'm talking about mixed beans coffee. I've written about it before. This is when you have the end of one bag of coffee, and you combine it with another coffee. Today we have the outstanding Nicaraguan coffee I recently reviewed by Bow Truss, with the nuttier El Salvadoran I also wrote on from Dark Matter. So how did it turn out?

Mark was concerned that the coffee looked light. I let him know that there is more caffeine in a lighter roast coffee. Both of these coffees are on the lighter end of a medium roast, so that makes sense.

What comes out in these two coffees is a strong cocoa taste of the Bow Truss, with the earthier, nuttier aftertaste of the Dark Matter. The blended very well. You smell more of the Bow Truss, but the Dark Matter comes through. For the record, it was 70% Bow Truss and 30% Dark Matter.

Both coffees went through a washed process in their development. The Bow Truss is the darker roast of the two, but it's a minimal difference.

On our Face Slapping Scale....the Bow Truss was a Cher slapping Nicolas Cage(10 out of 10), the Dark Matter was a less harsh slap. These strength these two bring is more an 8. It will wake you up, not as mellow when it's just the Dark Matter.

Maybe these two roasters should talk? I think they could make an interesting blend. All in all a good experiment.

Charlie

Coffee For Thought

Every now and then I come across various articles which discuss coffee statistics. Here are some interesting ones I thought I would share with you.


28% of coffee drinkers take it black.
30% sweeten their coffee.
55% of coffee drinkers would rather gain 10 lbs than give up coffee.
Americans drink 146 BILLION cups of coffee per year. We drink more coffee than anyone.
The average American worker spend $1,092 on coffee a year.
New Yorkers drink 7 times more coffee than any other cities in the U.S.
If you drank 100 cups of coffee at a time - it would be lethal.
Brewed espresso has 2.5% fat, brewed coffee has 0.6% fat.
The first webcam was invented at Cambridge University, and it was focused on a coffee pot, so researchers could see when the coffee was done.

Charlie

Your Coffee Dollars and Social Justice

Mostly when we think of coffee and social change, we think about fair trade, and what happens to the farmers and the farming communities. Today I'm going to ask you to think about something else. What happens when the roasters and hence the consumers use/drink coffee from countries which violate human rights practices?

I give you the case of Uganda. Within the last decade conservative Christian groups have gone into Uganda, and presented workshops, seminars and revivals on the "evils of homosexuality. " Their efforts have had direct correlation to legislation which has made it all the way to the prime minister, which would jail, not only LGBT people, but people who know they are gay or transgendered. This is only slightly watered down, as the penalty for gay people in the original bill was death.

There are various roasters who do business with Ugandan coffee growers. Do we encourage them not to do business in this country? Do we as consumers decide not to drink Ugandan coffee if faced with that prospect?  If the answer to those questions is yes, does something like that have an impact which could help LGBT Ugandans?

There are times boycotts work. Other times, they make no difference whatsoever. I can only tell you what I plan to do.

As a gay man, I can't turn my back on my Ugandan LGBT brothers and sisters. I will be asking questions when I am getting coffee, if they know if Ugandan coffee is part of the blend, and I will opt for something else.

Is it fair to Ugandan growers who have no ill will towards gay people? No it isn't, but if enough people rally behind this, maybe this empowers LGBT supports to let the government know that their bottom line is hurting, and it hurts the country's bottom line.

Curious on your thoughts.

Charlie

The Issue of Gift Cards

Lately I have been reading about a trend where independent coffee houses are offering to allow people to use Starbucks gift cards in their establishments. I will admit this puzzles me. In my job, we have a competing store that has done the same thing, that if you go in with my stores gift certificate, they will allow you to use it.

From a marketing standpoint, I get it. From a bottom line, I think that is horrible business. In essence, you are not taking any money, and you are giving away products/drinks. The gift card/certificates have no monetary value to your business, and to be honest, Starbucks already has the money. So if I have a $10 Starbucks card, and use it at "Ye Olde Local CoffeeHouse" that business is basically giving me $10 worth of food and drink. That can't be good for margins.

Perhaps there is someone with a bit more business know how than I have can explain it to me.

Again, I get it from a marketing standpoint. Rally around the local business, and don't use the big pots' card. But the big guy already has the money, and doesn't care if you come in and redeem it or not.

So who is really being helped?

Charlie

Coffee Should Taste Like Coffee - Even Dunkin Donuts Coffee

I have said some pretty snarky things about Dunkin Donuts coffee in the past. I've said it tastes like motor oil. That isn't fair, and I'm sorry. I have never had motor oil, so for me to compare the taste of the coffee to motor oil is wrong.

A co-worker was stunned that I brought in Dunkin Donuts coffee to work the other day. To be honest, they were the only place I went that didn't have a long line. So it was a convenience issue, and not a taste issue. I just wanted coffee.

When I went in to the donut store, they asked me if I would like a "Turbo Shot." I asked what that was. Seems they will put a shot of espresso in the coffee. In other places I have heard that called a "Depth Charge." Anyway, I thought I would try it, thinking it might improve the coffee.

There's an old saying, and it is true in the case of this coffee, with an espresso shot ; "Two wrongs don't make a right." It was strong coffee to be sure, but there was almost no taste. If you are the most freaking popular coffee in America, or so they like the brag, how do you make a coffee with no flavor? I tasted the cream and the Splenda I put in, and NO COFFEE!

Now, I have wonderful friends who think this coffee is terrific. I challenge them to explain to me why it is so terrific, because this is one mystery that not even the great Sherlock Holmes could unravel.

Charlie

Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee

This has little to do with coffee, except it's Jerry Seinfeld driving famous comedians in his cars to go get coffee and talk. The third season of this web series is premiering this week. I had not head of this show, until I read a blurb about it yesterday.  This is a funny show.


http://www.crackle.com/c/comedians-in-cars-getting-coffee?mid=2491279&plid=2122323

Now I have some catching up to do in this series, but I was laughing out loud as Seinfeld talked with comedy greats like Carl Reiner, Mel Brooks and Don Rickles. For those of a younger generation, they are comic geniuses, and there will never be anyone like them again.

I love the fact Seinfeld is doing this series. Sure, they drink coffee, but who cares, he is asking these funny people questions you and I might ask. He is the fan for us.

Take a look at this funny series....and sip some coffee while doing so.

Charlie

Bow Truss Review

It's been a given, at least in a good many coffee circles, that Intelligentsia is THE specialty coffee roaster in Chicago. Of course as time as gone on, more and more specialty coffee roasters have made their mark. None of them though had gone into the Lakeview neighborhood, where Intelligentsia's flagship cafe is located. That is until Bow Truss Coffee Roasters opened their doors in June, 2012 just a couple doors down from Intelligentsia. Seems to me if you are going to open a couple blocks from Intelligentsia, you better have an "A game" coffee.

I ventured into the cafe/roaster last week, on a particularly snowy day. A few things struck me. The cafe was more roaster than cafe. There were no pastries, and very few tables for people to hang out. What I saw was this...

I went to the counter and talked to the barista about the coffees and advice on what to select. She asked a series of questions about what kinds of coffee do I enjoy. Do I like dark roast? Medium Roast. I told her I was more a medium roast, and she said, "That's good, because that is about all we have." I picked two coffees a Brazilian and a Nicaraguan. She gave me detail about both coffees. One I was going to keep, the other I was going to give to Mark's mother as a thank you gift for letting us stay with them.

The Nicaraguan is "Nicaragua Beneficio Santa Lucila Caturra." According to Bow Truss' website:

Beneficio Santa Lucila is a coffee mill run by the Pagagua Family in the Nueva Segovia region of Nicaragua. The mill takes in coffee from neighboring farms, cups them in their on-site lab, and take meticulous care by quality, farmer, varietal, etc.preserving transparency throughout the chain."

This morning, I brew a pot of the coffee for breakfast. From the moment I took my first sip, I fell in love with this coffee. Bow Truss will tell you there are notes of Mandarin Orange, Fudge and Almond. What I tasted what a bright, chocolatey rich flavor. The aftertaste did hint of citrus, but not orange, in my opinion. Because this was a morning coffee, I want to be awake. This coffee on our Face Slapping Scale was a 10 - Cher in Moonstruck "Snap out of it" slap. This was one amazing cup of coffee. I brewed the second pot, and again, pure enjoyment.

Bow Truss needed to be a great roaster to be in the same zip code with Intelligentsia. They not only are, but I think in time, they can own the block. There will be a time this roaster won't be compared to its prestigious neighbor, they will be a standard of which other coffees are judge. 

Kudos to Bow Truss. I now know you, and will be trying other coffees from you.

Charlie

The French Press: History and Method

As Mark and I have been using our French Press more and more, I thought I would do some studying on this brew method.

While some(most likely French people) insist it was a Frenchman who developed the pot, which we know as the French Press, it was actually Attillo Callimani, from Milan, Italy, who was awarded the first patent for it in 1929.  The Italians call this process, cafetiere. Over the years various designers and companies have toyed with the look of the plunger pot, Bodum, a Dutch company is credited with really mainstreaming the popularity of the French Press.

Making coffee in a French Press is pretty easy. Grind the coffee coarsely. You don't want a fine grind, or grounds get through the filter. Heat the water to about 200 degrees Fahrenheit. Pour about 1/3 of the pot with water to let the coffee bloom, then slowly add the rest of the water. Once the water is in the pot, let the coffee seep for about 4 minutes. Once the time is up, push down on the plunger, and the grounds will remain on the bottom of the pot, and you have coffee - VOILA!

One pot for us makes two cups of coffee. What I like is there is almost no coffee wasted, unlike a pot, where you may throw out what you don't drink. Mark and I make each have two cups, and there is no waste.

From a flavor standpoint, I find this method and the Chemex, really allow you to get the full flavor of a coffee. A drip maker could have calcium deposits, and other other minerals, as well as old coffee residue(if you aren't cleaning it regularly), which can alter the taste of the coffee. These methods allow water and coffee to mix and blend, and bring out the full flavor.

If you haven't tried this method, I highly recommend it.

Charlie

Santa Petrona Review: Dark Matter

This last week I was in Chicago, and I got to visit some new places for coffee, as well as trying a new coffee from an old friend. I have never been to the Star Lounge, where Dark Matter Coffee is served. I braved the cold and snow, and ventured to the Ukranian Village neighborhood where the Star Lounge is located. I was glad I did.

The Star Lounge is a coffee bar, which if you didn't know better, was a local bar. The atmosphere was like walking into Cheers, where if you are a regular, everyone knows your name(and coffee drink).  In addition to the bar, there's an area where you can get your "to go" items, as well as buying a bag of beans.

After spending a few minutes looking at the various types of coffee available, I chose El Salvador: Santa Petrona. According to Dark Matter this coffee comes from Finka Santa Petrona, the "holy grail of coffee farms in El Salvador." It is a Bourbon coffee, which went through a natural process.

For those not clear, a natural process is when the the coffee berries are dried with the seed inside. The beans are dried, much like a grape to a raisin. Natural processed coffees tend to heavier feel and intense flavors. Speaking of flavors, on the bag, the flavors listed are "Strawberry Shortcake, Raspberry and Vanilla.

This morning I opened the bag, and made a French Press pot of this coffee. When I opened the bag, I smelled a strong nutty aroma. As I drank the coffee, the nutty flavor was the predominant flavor. I'll be honest, I didn't taste what Dark Matter described on the bag. I got almost a hazelnut flavor. It was a smooth coffee, definitely a lighter roast. I think the light roast fooled me, because I wasn't expecting the intense flavor.

This is a mellow coffee, as far as the strength. This is a love tap, 1 on our scale of 1-10. If you want to ease into the morning, this is the coffee. If you want an afternoon coffee, to remind you there is work to do, it would be fine for that.

Did I like the coffee? I was ok with the coffee. I am not a nut flavored kind of guy, so this coffee didn't strike me was something I would get on a regular basis. Still it was a good cup of a coffee, and if you want to try something different, I would recommend this.

Charlie

The Issue of Fair Trade

Fair Trade coffee is a controversial topic in the coffee world. In the 1990s, the fair trade movement took root, as a way to pay coffee growers a fairer price for their coffees, and provide better opportunities for farming communities. The 10 principles of fair trade are:

Creating opportunities for economically disadvantaged producers
Transparency and accountability
Fair trading practices
Payment of a fair price
Ensuring no child or enforced labor
Commitment to non-discrimination
Ensuring good working conditions
Providing capacity building
Promoting fair trade
Respect for the environment

On the surface there is nothing too controversial about this, but the issue these days is the quality of coffee. Coffee companies like Starbucks do wonderful things to promote fair trade, and they are the largest fair trade coffee provider, but with coffee prices at all time lows, are farmers really being paid for the quality of coffee they are producing?

The following video produced by Vocativ, a digital news service, points out that better prices for coffee are being paid for those who produce better quality coffee.

The video raises some interesting questions. Is fair trade worth it anymore? With so many coffee companies dealing in direct trade, is there any concern that the economic progress made from fair trade practices will backslide?

What are your thoughts?

Charlie

Bridgeport Coffee House Review

Chicago has very distinctive neighborhoods. I have been a northsider during my time in Chicago. Mark's family is on the South Side in Bridgeport. The North Side has trendy places to eat and drink. The South Side, other than Hyde Park is more working class. Bridgeport, where we are is the area the Daley's have called home for decades.

Walking into the Bridgeport Coffee House, you encounter a long wooden bar, a tiled floor and a white  ornate, metallic ceiling. This is not a fancy atmosphere, but it is a comfortable and inviting one. The staff is friendly and happy to see you. A yuppie can feel good sipping a latte here, just as the guy headed to his street maintenance job will feel good grabbing a cup of joe to go.

 So what am I drinking? I purposely didn't ask, and then I scanned to website to see if I could figure it out. What I noticed was a strong, almost chocolate like flavor. This would indicate the Papua New Guinea according to the coffees they roast. When I got my second cup....I was right. Woo Hoo I called it.

This is a rich cup of coffee. Yes I taste the chocolate, but there is also spicy flavor to it. Perfect for a cold winter's day. On the strength scale (1 being a love tap and 10 being a Cher slapping you to "snap out of it!", this is a 9. This coffee packs a punch, and would wake you up after a New Year's Eve Party hangover. I like this coffee a lot. Normally coffees from S.E. Asia and the Pacific have an earthiness I don't care for, but this is not bothering me.

We'll be taking some coffee home with us that is for sure. I encourage my Chicago friends to venture down to the South Side to try this coffee. I think they will be pleased. As for the rest of you, here is their website -

http://www.bridgeportcoffeecompany.com

Charlie

Drink the Folgers!

Folgere isn't a coffee you would expect me to talk about. I dare say, most of you would be stunned that I have had some. I am visiting Mark's family for the New Year, and this is what they have in the house. Mark's mother frequently feels bad that she serves this to me. I make it very clear, that I am happy with any coffee she serves.

True, I don't like Folgers. In fact, I don't like any pre-packaged ground coffee. Freshness is not part of this coffee. As a result the coffee tastes stale. Of course when you make stale coffee, in a drip coffee maker, and let it sit, well, most of you know what that does to the coffee. I think a good gift would be a French Press for her. At least then the Folgers has a fighting chance to be ok.

The main point of this post though is to talk about etiquette. When you are served coffee, politely take it. Don't be a snob. Your host/hostess may like the coffee, and you are being rude if you are thumbing your nose at their coffee. I don't want anyone host/hostess to apologize for the coffee they serve. If all you do is nurse a cup of coffee, do, but don't you dare make someone feel bad for making coffee.

Not everyone has a home roaster. Not everyone can get a nice bag of fresh roasted coffee. Some people are just glad to be able to have Folgers in the house. So be nice.

If you want to gift your host/hostess with some nice fresh coffee, do so. I would caution though, do it in a non-snobby way, or the recipient may think you are giving them coffee, so you won't have to drink what they normally serve. Again....be nice.

Ok....lesson over.

Charlie