Yup, that’s how we do it

(Source: lovelysardine)

The misleading nature of this attempt at an advertisement is astounding. Saying that pre-ground (who knows how far in advance) drip-brewed robusta dust is at all better than freshly roasted, recently ground, French press brewed coffee is laughable. Good job, Maxwell House.

I finally visited both Brooklyn Gimme! espresso bars this past weekend. They’re so close that it only took twelve minutes to walk from the Lorimer Street espresso bar to the one on Roebling Street. I liked the sign outside of the Roebling Street Gimme!, so I thought I’d share it.

Acrylic on canvas painting of a coffee plant that my brother painted. After a frame support repair, it’ll be hanging on the wall in our new apartment kitchen. Post-repair and installation photos will likely follow soon.

My rockin’ coffee article that appeared in the last issue of this year’s SUNY-ESF Knothole, my university’s student publication. I’m graduating in a few days and earning my bachelors of science in environmental biology with a minor in environmental writing, so this was the last issue of The Knothole that I was able to work on. I worked initially as web editor for about two years, but was placed on the layout editing team and appointed online communication coordinator at the beginning of this semester. For this last issue, we had to basically hand over the reigns and merely overlook the whole process, so I decided I’d contribute by writing an article, and here it is!

I love these diagrams.

About a week and a half ago, I stumbled across the pocket-sized coffee taster’s journal, 33 Coffees, while browsing the Coffee Common’s FAQ page. I really liked the idea of keeping a journal about all the amazing coffees I’d taste in my lifetime. That way I could peruse my entries again in the future and relive the moments I chronicled while enjoying each drink or recall a particularly outstanding coffee and what I liked about it. I knew that owning a coffee tasting journal would make me seem like even more of a coffee addict though, so I resisted purchasing it…at least for a little while.

Fortunately, after a few days and with the approval of at least two of my close friends, I sent my $6.00 through PayPal to the creator in exchange for my own copy. Coming from Portland, Oregon, it arrived at my apartment in Syracuse in a surprisingly short period of time. All my concern about being judged for my addiction had since passed and I was eager to free the book from it’s all-paper postal envelope!

Once opened, I realized that the book was much more compact than I had initially imagined — a mere 3.5 inches wide by 5 inches tall — but I liked the enhanced portability of it. The outside cover has a raw, brown paper bag look and feel to it and displays the title “33 Cups of Coffee (Espressos, Lattes, & Cappuccinos, Too)” in large print. Behind the title, there are thirty-five coffee-colored tasse à café illustrations, the ink of which according to the back cover, contains a few drops of Santa Sofia Peaberry produced by Ernesto Pacas Diaz in Santa Ana, El Salvador. Inside, the pages provide you with the space to jot down some simple information about the coffee itself, the brewing methods used, how you rate the drink, a brilliant web-like flavor wheel, and space for notes.

I’ve so far made two entries in the journal. The first, regarding the French press of coffee that I brewed at home yesterday and the second, regarding the iced Americano made from Gimme Coffee’s Piccolo Mondo blend that I purchased this afternoon at Second Story in Syracuse.

So, bravo to 33 Books, Co. for producing a volume that allows me to further appreciate coffee, journaling, and the art of tasting!

Source: ChartsBin Statistics Collector Team. 2011. Current Worldwide Annual Coffee Consumption per capita. ChartsBin.com. <http://chartsbin.com/view/581>.

I believe this 100%.

Hi there! I like how the two parts to your question are pretty unrelated.

To answer the first part your question, I’d need to know a little bit more about the method you use to make your coffee. If you’re using a conventional drip-filter coffee maker, you should stop…only if you can. The reason you’d be burning coffee in one of those is because the bottom heating plate is on as long as the machine is turned on. Coffee should only be heated for about four minutes and consumed after that time, otherwise the suspended globules of oil that make up the flavor of coffee start to evaporate and burn off. The best way to make coffee is in a French press with freshly ground whole beans!

To answer part two of your question, I think a good friend is someone who can make you a cup of coffee without burning it.

Nah, a good friend is someone you can trust, someone you can be honest with, someone that will stand by you no matter what, someone who you love to see and be with, and someone who can make you laugh at the most difficult times. In all honesty, I feel that there are an endless number of things that can make a good friend and I’ve only scratched the surface, but I think you get the picture. Friends are amazing.