"Have You Tried Our Via Coffee?"

If you have been into a Starbucks in the last week, you have most likely been asked whether or not you have participated in their "Via Taste Test."  Every Starbucks I have entered has had a little display with two identical carafes and wee paper cups at the front counter, beside the register.  

If you confess that you have not performed the taste test, the barista will dispense a tiny bit of coffee into the wee paper cups, one dose from each carafe, and ask you to decide which one you prefer.  Surprise!  You will probably prefer Via instant coffee.

There is no real surprise to this.  The only surprise is how awful Starbucks' drip coffee is, and has always been.  The mystery is why anyone ever drinks their drip coffee, which is surely one of the most vile concoctions available for sale on the market today.  Anything would be better than that, including Via instant coffee (which comes in French Roast and Italian Roast, unlike the drip coffee which just comes in Awful).

I feel like I should stop and explain that I actually like Starbucks coffee.  I frequently buy their beans and grind them for use at home (burr grinder, Mr. Coffee drip machine or Delonghi EC155 espresso maker).  When I'm out and about, I will happily buy a Starbucks espresso drink if it's handy.  In other words, I'm not a Starbucks hater like so many people seem to be.  I'm neither a flag-waving Starbucks fanatic nor a coffee snob with an axe to grind.

It has long been a conspiracy theory that Starbucks has kept their drip coffee terrible in the hopes that it pushes people towards their more expensive espresso drinks.  I could believe this.  In fact, the entire rest of Starbucks' panoply of coffee is quite tasty when you brew it up at home.  (Except Gazebo Blend, which I loathe beyond all understanding.  But that's just personal preference, I know there are people who like it.  I know of no one who will confess to liking Starbucks drip coffee.)

I have a friend who works at the Starbucks corporate office, who has sheepishly confessed that everyone knows the drip coffee is terrible.  Pitching Via instant coffee as "better than our drip" is almost certainly calculated to be a win for Via.  "Which would you prefer: a punch in the face, or a cup of Via?"  It's an interesting sales strategy.

Personally I can definitely see an advantage to Starbucks Via.  I would definitely buy a box for business travel.  Starbucks is also selling plastic travel cups with little slots designed to store the Via packets.  Imagine being able to procure a decent cup of coffee while on an airplane!  Or in a hotel room!  Hotels are starting to remove the little coffee makers from their rooms, because people were using them to cook meth.  The last time I traveled, my hotel room did not have a little coffee maker, and I was very sad.

Making Coffee: French Press

There have been times in my life where

I've had to travel on business, quite a lot. One of the things I'm less than fond about in terms of business travel is mediocre coffee. The hotel room drip pots are fine for a day or two, but the coffee is pretty awful, and most of the time, part of the problem is the pot itself, since it brews at the wrong temperature, it makes two scant cups at a time of weak coffee, and then there's the problem in some cities of exceedingly chlorinated tap water.

My solution is to avoid both the hotel coffee and the $5.00 cup of marginally better coffee from a chain bistro by bringing my own French press and brewing my own coffee. That's a picture of one at the top; I travel with a two-cup/16-oz Bodum "Chambord" French press. The quality of the press is important by the way, because it affects the ease of use, and the quality of the coffee—and it's sturdy enough to travel with. I'm still heating the water in the coffee maker, but I use my own coffee and bottled water (which is readily available at local mini-marts or hotel beverage vending machines), and I make sure that the coffee isn't too hot.

I usually bring enough ground coffee for two or three pots, but then I find a local source of fresh ground coffee; it's pretty easy these days, and on the east and west coast there are lots of family-owned small batch roasters.

The basic mechanism of the French Press is simplicity itself, and needs no electricity—just boiling water, and ground coffee. It's essentially a cylindrical pot, with a plunger and filter mechanism built into the lid. You use the plunger to separate the steeped coffee from the grounds.

Note: The grind of coffee you use is important; it's at least as important as the quality of the roasted beans. You want large particles that are roughly the same size. You do NOT use a fine grind, or a "mixed" grind. You want coarse grounds. The grounds need to be even, and roughly the size of very coarse fresh ground pepper.

  1. Use two rounded tablespoons of coarsely ground coffee for each 8 oz of water. Adjust to suit taste.
  2. Place the ground coffee in the bottom of the press pot.
  3. Boil the water and then remove it from the heat.
  4. Slowly pour the hot water over the grounds, making sure to evenly saturate all of them.
  5. Gently stir the grounds with a coffee stirrer, or chop stick or a fork, if you can.
  6. Cover the pot with the filter/plunger mechanism and let the coffee steep; two to three minutes for 8 to 12 ounces, four for 12 ounces. You'll soon be able to adjust to your preferences.
  7. Press gently but firmly, and slowly and evenly on the plunger mechanism. Keep the plunger straight, to avoid coffe grounds escaping into the brewed coffee.
  8. Hold the lid, and being wary of the hot areas of the pot, gently, carefully pour your coffee into a cup.

As much as I like my two-cup Bodum French press, I confess that I've been drawn to the version that has a built-in insulated travel mug; it has a certain convenience level that is attractive, not the least of which is that it keeps 16 oz of fresh brewed coffee hot. If you're curious about using a French Press or "press pot, or "plunger pot," here are two step-by-step how-to guides. Coffee fanatics will tell you it makes the richest brew around, and it's pretty easy.

Bikini Baristas Busted in Everett


Bikini Baristas are not typically known for their modesty, but the customers of the bikini baristas in Everett had a little extra incentive to tip largely at the stands.

After two months of what must have been intrepid police work, the detectives "uncovered" enough evidence to determine that some of the women at one stand were not only exposing a little more than advertised, they were allegedly "performing whip cream shows between two women", which was described in the Seattle Times as one barista "licking whipped cream off a co-worker's groin and breast". The police started their investigation after citizen complaints about lewd behavior and put in some "hard" time. In order to catch their prey, they had to pay $20 and witness the act firsthand.

The owner of the stand denies any knowledge of the "indecent" behavior, and specifically stated that "no whip cream on bodies" was allowed, which seems like kind of a strange rule to have unless she knew that kind of behavior was going on.

Other alleged offenses include "basketball". Without describing the game too explicitly, I'll tell you that the hoop was not a coffee cup and it was definitely a case where you had to pay to play.

Everett, having nothing better to do, is scheduling a public hearing on enforcing a regulation concerning lewd behavior, "making it specifically illegal for someone to expose their breasts and genitals."

 

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2009935633_webbaristas24m.html

Making Coffee: Greek Coffee

Greek coffee is intensely flavored, rich, dark coffee made in small batches, and served immediately in

demitasse cups. The coffee is best sipped while it's almost too hot to bear (there's a reason Greek coffee is traditionally accompanied by a glass of cold water and a small plate of sweet cookies). In Greece, you will often see men, especially early in the morning, gathered in small groups by the local coffee shop, where they sip two or three cups of this amazing brew while discussing politics or soccer, before heading off to the boats or other work. Coffee and something to nibble is also often served after the mid-day break as well.

The coffee must be made in small batches; usually two demitasse cups at a time, but rarely more than four. You use a small copper or steel cylindrical pan with a lip but no lid called a briki to brew the coffee. Part of the enjoyment in the coffee is that the fine grind, and the rapid brewing, create a rich creamy foam on the top. Your host or brewer will inquire how you want your coffee, unsweetened or slightly sweet, or very sweet.

To make the coffee, fresh and very cold water is measured (using one of the demitasse cups) and poured into the briki.

The specially ground Greek coffee is added, one heaping teaspoon per cup, with an appropriate amount of sugar; the coffee may be unsweetened (sketos), slightly sweetened, by the addition of a teaspoon of sugar (metrios), or very sweet, with the addition of two teaspoons of sugar (glykos).

The briki is put on the burner, with the heat set to medium low. The coffee is stirred just until the coffee dissolves (and never, ever stirred again). Allow the coffee to heat, slowly, until foam starts to appear.

The foam is exceedingly important; traditionally the quality of the foam is associated with the richness and quality of the coffee. Once the foam has risen to the top of the briki (this happens very quickly once it starts), the coffee is removed, carefully, from the heat.

The foam is poured off first, gently, so that it is shared between the cups. Then, top the cups off with the rest of the coffee, being careful to preserve the foam in the cups.

Serve the coffee immediately, with a glass of cold water, and perhaps a small plate of biscotti, like paximathi, or melomekarena (especially at Christmas, but really anytime of year) or possibly amygdalota, koulourakia, or the traditional baklava.You will notice that the grounds have settled to the bottom of your cup of coffee; you might be tempted to practice the art of kafemandeia, or reading coffee grounds.

Health Benefits of Coffee

It’s no wonder that coffee is the second-most popular drink in America. It’s delicious, it comes in as many unique flavors as you can think of, and it’s a very quick pick-me-up for tired souls. Why is it, then, that I feel so guilty when I indulge in a cup?

It’s probably because coffee’s got a bad rap. If you drink too much—say, three pots a day while never sleeping and studying all week—yeah, you should stop. Like, yesterday. High “doses” of coffee can make you dehydrated, raise your blood pressure (but only for a few minutes), and perhaps even contribute to more brittle bones. It’s also not a good idea for pregnant women.

That said, coffee is essentially good for you in many other ways. It can lessen the risk of Type 2 diabetes as well as Parkinson’s disease, alleviate mild depression, and possibly help with weight loss by increasing calories burned per hour (up to 44%).

And coffee doesn’t just make you perkier. Coffee can also help reduce the risk of colon cancer, as well as help you maintain digestive regularity. It can sharpen the mind, reduce the risk of developing kidney stones, and cut your risk of getting cancers of the skin, liver and bladder. It may even help you live longer.

A source of antioxidants, it should be no surprise that coffee has these benefits. While we hear about the antioxidants of tea and wine all of the time, coffee doesn’t get the limelight so much—and while it may not have as many antioxidants as green tea, it’s often the largest source of antioxidants for coffee drinkers themselves.

Coffee also has a compound in it, theophylline, which can help people with asthma by lessoning symptoms. And how many drinks do you know that actually have fiber in them? Well, drinks that you like; Metamucil doesn’t count.

The Mayo Clinic has even gone as far to say that for people who drink coffee, the benefits may just outweigh the risks! So fellow coffee inhalers, leave your guilt behind with your sluggishness and low metabolism and embrace your daily java.

That said, as you know, caffeine is addictive, and everything in moderation is a good rule. Too much of a good think makes it no longer a good thing.

So how much is too much? Two to four cups a day is said to be okay as long as you’re not pregnant, but keep in mind that that means actual cups—not the giant “cups” most of us encounter. 

Top 10 Weird Coffee Flavors

Call me old-fashioned, but I just like a regular cup of joe. If I’m in the mood for a latte, I like it sweet and French vanilla-y. I’m not into a lot of weird flavors in my coffee. (Take me to get a drink at Sonic during Happy Hour, now, there’s a different story.)

I always see seasonal latte flavors at the convenience store and the bookstore and I was wondering what the oddest flavors might be. Here’s what I came up with.

10. Eggnog: This flavor isn’t so weird on it’s own, but do we really need to make it into a latte flavor? Couldn’t you just, you know, heat up a glass of eggnog?

9. Tea Lattes: When Starbucks first started serving these, I was a bit skeptical; however, they’re quite delicious, and really nothing new. Red lattes with rooibos tea are common in South Africa.

8. Coconut Coffee: I think this might just be gross to me because I’m not a huge coconut fan. But when you think of coconut drinks, don’t you conjure images of islands in the sun, cocktails and summertime—rather than cozying up with a latte?

7. Single Malt Scotch Coffee: OK, I get an Irish Coffee, and all the coffee-flavored drinks out there… but this just seems to be making coffee into a drink-to-get-drunk frenzy. Before you know it you’ll be hearing “I’ll have a jack and coffee, please” at the bar.

6. Café Latte Slurpuccino: OK, this is your basic frozen coffee drink, just Slurpee-ized. Not entirely weird, but the name is pretty awful. I’ve never tried one but I hear they’re pretty gross.

5. Banana Coffee: Again, this tropical flavor just doesn’t sound like coffee.

4. Bacon: Of course, it’s no surprise given the big bacon frenzy of the country, but the thought of such a flavored coffee still makes me want to hurl.

3. Pepsi Kaffe: This is coffee-flavored soda sold in Mexico, South America and Central America. I don’t think I’d ever even want to try it. Would you? I suppose if it were simply an iced coffee it could be good, but I’m betting it’s pretty soda-fied. Coca-Cola sells similar products as well, including the Georgia coffee products which are popular in Asia.

2. Violet Sweet Potato Latte: Doesn’t this sound like a character from Strawberry Shortacke? “Hurry, Violet Sweet Potato, the Purple Pieman is after your sweet potato garden!”

1. Civet Coffee: The Palm Civet, a wild cat native to Asia, eats the berries from the coffee plant, poops them out… and has them collected by workers to make them into coffee beans.

Yeah.

Both the Barking Deer of Southeast Asia and the Formosan Rock Monkey are also sources of such “processing methods,” the former through its stool and the latter through its spit. Yum.

Do you know of any stranger flavors? Share them here!

Making Coffee: Pour Over Coffee

This is still one of the most common ways to make coffee as well as one of the least expensive in terms of equipment. Essentially, manual pour over coffee make

consists of a glass or plastic housing that contains a coffee filter, and a container to collect the brewed coffee. They come on both individual one-cup serving sizes, that perch over a mug, and larger sizes up to 12 cups. My very first coffee maker was a manual pour over. In my case, it was one of the plastic Melitta filter cones that I used with Melitta paper coffee filters. There are other brands besides Melitta—purists often favor the Chemex manual pour over coffee makers because the entire thing is made of high quality tempered glass. In my glass, I used a plastic Melitta filter cone, and a porcelain coffeepot, with an air tight lid that would keep the coffee hot.

In crude terms, you put the ground coffee (two tablespoons per 8 oz cup, please) in the filter, bring the water just to a boil, then pour it over the coffee. There are a few things that make a difference, and if, you keep them in mind, you can reliably produce one of the best cups of coffee you've ever had. First, you have to start with good quality coffee, second, it's amazing what a difference it makes it you grind the coffee just before you use it, third, use pure, clean cold water, and if it's not actually enjoyable to drink the water from the tap, purchased purified water.

Brewing Pour Over Coffee

Ingredients and Equipment

  • 1 Pour over coffee maker
  • 1 Container for brewed coffee
  • Fresh ground coffee (two tables spoons per 8 oz cup, and one for the brewer)
  • Cold drinkable water
  • Kettle

Procedure

  1. Heat the water; allow 8 ounces per cup
  2. Grind the coffee to a medium grind once you hear the water start to boil.
  3. Pour a little hot water, slowly, over the grounds, to saturate them.
  4. Pause, then pour the rest, keeping an eye on the liquid level.
  5. If the water covers the grounds completely (this depends on how much coffee you are brewing), gently stir the slurry, so that all the grounds are equally saturated.
  6. Wait for the water to drip through.
  7. Serve the coffee.

Here are two other, slightly more complicated methods. If you're not sure where to shop for a brew over coffee maker, you can find them online. If you want to make iced coffee, use about 1/3 less water to make the same amount of coffee, since you'll be serving it over ice.

Making Coffee: Cold-Brewed Coffee

It's been so very very record-breaking hot OMG-I'm-melting here that I've been reluctant to generate even the little bit of heat that brewing fresh hot coffee in my electric drip coffee maker emits. I could brew the coffee at night when it's cooler, and put it in a bottle to make lovely ice coffee in the morning—if you make the coffee a bit stronger than usual, that works quite well on an unbearably hot summer morning.

But then I discovered cold-brewing (or, technically, steeping). That's right; brewing coffee without heat. It takes longer, so it's something you do ahead of time, but the coffee is intensely flavorful, with much lower acid. The end product of cold brewing is a very very rich "coffee essence"; you dilute it with hot or cold water before drinking it, typically, using an equivalent amount of water and coffee essence.

I first made cold-brewed coffee using a commercial kit, the Toddy Cold Brewed Coffee Maker, but it's pretty easy to do without one. To start, you need good freshly ground coffee (use a medium grind), and good cold water.

Cold Brewed Coffee (Two Cups)

Ingredients:

  • 1/3 cup medium ground good coffee
  • 1 1/2 cups good water
  • 1 glass jar, or bottle, with a lid
  • Coffee filters, cheesecloth, or a very fine mesh sieve

Procedure

  1. Pour the ground coffee into the jar.
  2. Add the cold water.
  3. Cover the jar, and let it sit, out of the way either overnight or for 12 hours. After the coffee has "brewed" at least overnight, strain the coffee twice, using a coffee filter, a very fine mesh sieve or a less fine mesh sieve lined with cheesecloth.

You can let the coffee brew in the refrigerator, or on the counter. If you want hot coffee, add equal parts coffee essence and hot water to a mug. For iced coffee, mix equal parts coffee concentrate and water, or to taste, in a glass with ice. If you want sweetened iced coffee, sweeten the coffee before you add it to the ice. You can easily double or multiply this basic recipe to make more coffee, or adjust the water and coffee amounts to make stronger coffee. The brewed coffee will keep in the refrigerator for a couple of days.

If you want something a little more elaborate, here are two other methods for cold-brewed coffee.

Chicory Coffee

My mom grew up in the Depression era rural south, and her mom sometimes made Chicory coffee. Although we mostly associate Chicory coffee

with New Orleans, beignets, and Café Du Monde, it began as an economic substitute for coffee when it was too expensive, or too difficult to import because of blockades and war. The people of Louisiana brought Chicory with them from France by way of Acadia, and popularized it as a coffee substitute during the Civil war. Chicory coffee is made from the roasted root of the Chicory plant (Cichorium intybus); you've seen Chicory, and probably thought it was a wildflower; it has fairly long stems, with a multi-petaled lavender-blue flower that looks, roughly, like a daisy. Chicory was imported in the eighteenth century by European colonists, who used the perennial for cattle feeding and home remedies, and ate it themselves; Chicory is a cousin of

The Chicory plant has very long tap roots; it's a cousin of the endive and radicchio families, and it's currently quite fashionable in Europe to serve medieval style salads with young Chicory leaves, and the root gently boiled and sautéed with vinegar. To make Chicory coffee, you roast the root, then chop it very finely and add it to your freshly ground coffee. Chicory coffee is very much an acquired taste; it's a bit sharp in flavor, and you never want to cut the real coffee by more than say 30% or so. That said, there are people who make pure Chicory "coffee"— it has no caffeine at all, and, according to folklore, is a good "tonic" when not used in excess.

To make good Chicory coffee, you need to begin with a really good, fresh, French roast. You add the roasted and finely chopped Chicory root to the coffee then brew it as usual. New Orleans style Chicory coffee is made with 1/3 Chicory to coffee. Most people serve Chicory coffee au lait, with equal amounts of hot milk and coffee. In part that's because the milk tames the natural almost bitter-chocolate quality of the Chicory. Chicory coffee tends to be a little darker in color, and a little thicker in texture; it's the Guinness of coffee. If you're interested in growing and making your own Chicory blend,Hank Shaw's been there done that already, and tells you how. For those of us who are less adventurous, you can buy Chicory, as well as Chicory coffee online.

Making Coffee: Boiled Egg Shell Java

I will freely confess to spending my early adult

years as a coffee barbarian; I not only voluntarily drank instant coffee, I thought Sanka was pretty good. Eventually, I discovered the true elixir that brewed coffee can be from partaking of breakfast at diners. Once converted to the one true way, I inquired about how people made coffee before instant coffee, and Mr. Coffee, or even stove-top percolators.

Some of what I heard seemed so odd, that I've spent a couple of weeks researching it. There are quite a lot of different ways to make coffee that don't require investing hundreds of dollars in fancy equipment. I'm going to be posting about several of the more interesting, and easy-to-use methods for making good coffee. Needless to say, these all assume that you're starting out with quality coffee.

My grandmother, born in the late 1890s, made coffee in a steel coffee pot that was pretty much like the one in the picture above. Note: this was not a percolator; it's essentially a coffee-pot shaped container for boiling water to make coffee. She made a pot of coffee in the morning, by adding a cup of grounds (she used a hand-grinder to grind the beans, sometimes, and bought ground coffee as well) to water that was boiling. She brought it to a simmer again, then let it boil a few minutes before sliding it to the back of stove.

There's a method of boiling coffee that uses clean crushed egg shells to help "settle" the grounds; my grandmother didn't do that, but many of her generation did, and I've had "cowboy" coffee made over a campfire that way. Here's the basic method:

Ingredients

  • 10 tablespoons medium-ground full-flavored coffee
  • 10 cups cold water (use bottled or filtered water if your tap water is unpleasant)
  • Clean eggshells, crushed

Procedure

  1. Place 9 cups of the water in a non-reactive saucepan or enamel coffeepot.
  2. Add the coffee and crushed egg shells.
  3. Bring all the ingredients to a full boil; partially covering the pot will shorten the time until the mixture boils.
  4. Simmer, tightly covered, 5 to 7 minutes.
  5. Add the tenth cup of cold water—this helps the grounds settle.
  6. Let the coffee sit, off the burner, for two or three minutes to let the grounds settle.
  7. Strain the coffee through a wire sieve or coffee filter into a coffee pot, and serve.

There's a slightly different version of "boiled" or "cowboy" coffee that I associate with "church ladies." Mostly, this alternative is associated with Swedish or Norwegian Lutheran congregations, and it involves adding a raw egg to the coffee grounds.The preparation calls for mixing the coffee grounds and the raw egg in a bowl, adding a little hot water, then adding the whole with the clean crushed shells to boiling water. The measurements are the same, as is the basic procedure. The raw egg cooks and traps the grounds, and helps remove some of the natural acid in coffee.

Pages