Peet's Gourmet Coffee

Who doesn’t love coffee? I have found a new love in coffee. Peet’s coffee. I love coffee. I have tried many different kinds of roasted coffee blends in the past but happened to saw a Peet’s coffee aisle at the local grocery store. Many people I’ve heard from love this type of coffee brand. There is also a Peet’s coffee and tea shop too. Since I was not near the Peet’s coffee shop to purchase coffee there, I tried my luck to see if it was sold at this new place that just opened recently called Metropolitan Market.

The first Peet’s coffee and tea store opened in April 1966 on Vine Street in Berkeley, California. Peet’s coffee was created by Alfred Peet, who begin the process towards transforming the taste of coffee in the way that Americans experienced the taste and quality of coffee. This type of transformation still persists to this very day. Alfred Peet was born in Holland and came to the United States after World War II ended. He grew up in the coffee trade business and was stunned at the poor quality of coffee Americans were drinking. Eager to act fast, Peet became inspired to open his first coffee and tea shop in 1966. Since he emphasized on the importance of very good quality coffee, Peet’s style of coffee consisted of creating smaller batches, adding freshness, quality beans, and a darker roasting blend style. All of these combinations created into Peet’s coffee created richness, consistency, and most importantly, taste.

After Peet’s coffee and tea shop was launched in 1966, many coffee lovers, including nearby restaurants and neighbors were instantly flocking their way to this friendly neighborhood coffee place. Due to Peet’s brilliant success, he mentored and inspired many coffee entrepreneurs. This also included the founders of Starbucks. He supplied Starbucks with his own roasted beans during their first launch of operation in the coffee business. Peet’s coffee had instantly won the hearts of coffee lovers across the nation for over the past four decades. In the San Francisco Bay Area, Peet’s coffee is deeply admired and well loved.

My favorite Peet’s coffee is the French roast, which is more of an intense, dark roasted, smoky taste. I like to add my coffee with coconut creamer as well. I love adding sweetener to my coffee because it creates a luxurious, finishing taste. A spoonful of sweet light agave nectar helps too. Whatever your coffee taste buds are, I recommend Peet’s coffee.   

Emergency Caffeine Delivery Options

We're heading into winter, the storm season for many parts of the country.  Newscasters are always advising you to keep candles, tinfoil emergency blankets, and bottled water on hand.  But what about the coffee?

1. French Press
If you have a way to boil water when your power is out, then a French press is one of the two best solutions.  You can boil water on either a gas stove or a propane camp stove. 

The down side to the French press is the "texture" (which some people find objectionable) and the difficulty in cleaning out the grounds if you don't have a working water supply. 

2. Bialetti

This Italian stovetop espresso maker is my go-to weapon of choice.  For one thing, it's just one step: set on stove and wait for coffee to come out.  A French press requires two steps: boil water, then steep coffee.  NEED COFFEE MORE FASTERER.

For another thing, you can clean it by simply knocking out the puck of grounds.  This is important for me, because I'm on a well - I don't have running water when the power is out.

The only down side to the Bialetti is that it is relatively small.  It makes super-strong coffee, don't get me wrong, but if you have to caffeinate more than 2 people in your household, a large French press may be the better choice.

(Note: a Moka Pot will make coffee in about 15 minutes in a fondue set-up. Place the Bialetti in the rack that holds the pot, directly over the flame with the Sterno can full open.)

3. Thermos
If you have a good steel thermos, you see the storm coming, and you prep it right, this is a great option. Fill the thermos with boiling water and let it sit for 5-10 minutes to preheat it.  Then pour out the water, and fill it with fresh coffee.  It will be lukewarm by morning.  And lukewarm coffee is better than no coffee at all!

If you work in an office, you can fill your thermos at work and take it home for the morning.  Or have it filled at a Starbucks on the way home.

4. Soda
These are great if you're one of those people (like me) who needs a bump right away, immediately, first thing, no messing around.  A can of Coke Zero will give me enough of an infusion of caffeine to muddle my way through the process of making coffee without electricity.

5. Energy Drinks
These have more caffeine than soda, so you might think they would be a better choice.  Not so.  I like energy drinks, but they are too sweet and "loud" first thing in the morning.  I can't handle that much fruitiness that early in the day.

6. Tea
If your caffeine needs are minimal to moderate, and you can boil water without electricity, then a pot of black tea may do the trick.  Personally I need a bigger kick first thing in the morning.  But I include it here for the sake of completeness.

7. Instant Coffee
This is one of those things that sounds like a great solution, but really isn't.  If you try to mix instant coffee with cold water, it doesn't work very well.  If you have a way to heat water, there are better coffees you can make. 

And I don't know if you've noticed, but instant coffee is kind of expensive!  $7 for an 8-ounce jar, last time I checked.

Photo credit: Flickr/Kanaka Menehune

Does Coffee Prevent Alzheimer's?

There has been a lot of back and forth in the medical community about whether coffee is good for you or bad. 

The current line of reasoning focuses on the fact that coffee contains antioxidants, as well as pharmacologically interesting chemicals like tannins, and even a known anticancer chemical called methylpyridinium. 

But the biggest splash by far has been made by researchers studying the link between coffee and Alzheimer's disease.  Alzheimer's is a serious problem: half of all people over the age of 85 suffer from the disease. 

Alzheimer's happens when plaques build up on the nerve cells in the brain, tangles form within the neural cells, and the cells die.  The disease progresses slowly as the brain cells die one by one. 

Unless you drink a lot of coffee, that is.

Two studies form the basis of this assertion.  Both studies link a significantly decreased rate of Alzheimer's (we're talking a 90% reduction or better) to consumption of between 3 and 5 cups of coffee a day.  (The average American drinks between 1.5 and 2 cups per day.)

The first study examined short term memory in mice.  Frankly, this study doesn't appeal to me for two reasons:

1.     Mice are not people.  (I keep having to point that out!)  Mice do not get Alzheimer's; not that we can tell, anyway.  Mice don't have the level of cognition that makes Alzheimer's a possibility, and how would you be able to tell?  IT'S A MOUSE.


2.    Short term memory loss is not the same as Alzheimer's.  Agreed, it is a symptom.  It's most of what people know about Alzheimer's. 

But studying short term memory loss and saying it's relevant to Alzheimer's disease is like studying loss of use of the hands and saying it's relevant to people with broken arms.  It just… isn't.

Mice who receive the equivalent of 3 to 5 cups of coffee a day perform better on short term memory and cognitive tests.  Blah blah blah.

The second study is a lot more interesting.  For one thing, it is a study that involves people.  For another thing, it has a lot of data.  Researchers in Finland followed 1,400 coffee drinkers for twenty years.  They found that the biggest reduction of Alzheimer's happened in the group of people who drank that magic amount - 3 to 5 cups a day - since their 40s and 50s.

I know what you're about to say, and I agree.  So do the researchers, who have taken a lot of care to point out that "correlation does not equal causation."  It could well be that people who drink tons of coffee also chew a lot of gum, and that gum is actually what prevents Alzheimer's.  (I mean, not really - that's just a random example, obviously.)

The bigger question is, how much damage do your liver and kidneys endure with that kind of long term coffee consumption?  And given that there are only so many caffeinated beverages a person can drink in a day, is it better to prevent Alzheimer's by drinking coffee, or to prevent cancer and heart disease by drinking green tea?

Photo credit: Flickr/bitzcelt

Starbucks' Hunt For The Recyclable Cup

Fast Company has a surprisingly nuanced article about the difficulties Starbucks has faced in creating their holy grail: a 100% recyclable paper cup.

Paper cups have a wax coating so they can't be recycled with the regular paper.  They would need to be sorted out, in an entirely separate box.  Or - more likely, given the current technology - picked out of the conveyor belt by hand. 

(I have my own solution to this problem: a travel cup system that works the same way as glass bottles for milk.  When you buy glass bottled milk you pay a deposit - usually around $2.50.  The next time you buy milk you bring the old bottle in and exchange it. 

If you forget to bring the old bottle in, you just pay another $2.50.  Inevitably you end up with a bunch of extra empty bottles - just bring them into the store and get $2.50 back for each of them.  The fee is enough to cover the expense of carting away the old bottles and sterilizing them. 

This system would be awesome for Starbucks mugs, because it doesn't necessarily require you to remember to bring your travel mug.  Which is always my big problem.)

Starbucks has started a pilot program in Chicago.  In partnership with Georgia Pacific, Starbucks cups from Chicago will be trucked away, pulped, and turned into napkins for Starbucks stores. 

Of course, as you may have noticed, if you're at a Starbucks store (and you forgot your travel mug, you naughty thing) there is no place where you can recycle your cup.  Part of this project towards complete recyclability by 2015 is installing recycling bins at every Starbucks store.

This effort is admittedly something like tilting at windmills.  Recycling a cup may be the smallest of all the possible environmental concerns.  For example, that cup had to be produced in the first place - which involved a lot of fuel burned in transportation, trees pulped in fiber mills powered by electricity or possibly coal, chemicals used to bleach the paper, and on and on. 

But the white Starbucks cup is iconic, and it's the part of Starbucks that the customer actually holds in their hands.  If we can be made to feel good about the Starbucks to-go cup, presumably Starbucks is hoping those feelings will transfer to the company itself. 

(If I were a more cynical person, I might say that the whole point of the exercise is to greenwash the company as a whole.  But I have a good friend who works in the Starbucks corporate offices, and I know that as a company, their hearts are in the right place.)

It's true that more good could be done by outfitting Starbucks stores with solar panels than by making their cups recyclable.  But why be churlish?  Maybe the best thing about this whole deal is that, by making such a public effort out of finding a way to recycle their cups, Starbucks impresses upon its customers that this kind of thing is important.

Starbucks has become, for better or worse, a cultural leader.  And if they can lead us to recycle more, then all the better. 

Photo credit: Flickr/Louis Abate

Agave Nectar

             There is a new sweetener that I am in love with. Agave nectar. For those of you who haven’t heard of or tried this type of sweetener, I highly suggest tasting this yummy product. I first found out about agave nectar while grocery shopping at the local PCC organic store near my house. I intentionally went into the store to buy some bread and jam for breakfast. I passed by the peanut butter aisle, and then saw the agave nectar lying perfectly sweet in front of my large brown eyes. I have heard of agave before, but did not know you could eat it. The agave nectar sweetener instantly caught my attention.

            Two types of agave nectar that was on the store shelves were light or Amber sweetener. Since I do not really like too sweet or strong, I decided to give the light agave nectar sweetener a shot. I drove home and went on my lap top to do a little research on this sweetener. It turns out this delicious sweetener can be added to your hot tea, iced tea, coffee, smoothies, or even protein shakes. I was thinking to myself, “Wow!” I love drinking hot tea and coffee. After my research, I went straight to my kitchen stove to boil some water into the tea kettle to make some yummy green tea. As I was waiting for the water to boil, I took out two tea packets I bought from Whole Foods called Guayaki Organic Yerbe Mate. This tea consists of a rich, balanced, and earthy taste. Once my water was boiling hot, I poured hot water over my coffee cup, placed my tea bags in nicely, and then started pouring the light agave nectar sweetener over my tea. I stirred the tea with a spoon and waited for the tea to be warm. I tasted my green tea and boy was it magnificently delicious! Never have I tasted a sweet tea drink like this before.

            Here is a brief background and description on agave nectar. Agave nectar is also called agave syrup, a sweetener produced in Mexico from several different species of agave. They include the Blue Agave, Salmiana Agave, Green Agave, Grey Agave, Thorny Agave, and Rainbow Agave. Though people may think honey is very sweet, agave nectar is actually in fact sweeter, but less intense in the tasting department. I am not a huge fan of honey, so having a sweetener as a substitute is quite actually yummy and the taste of agave nectar is not too strong or thick.

          Agave nectar is produced from the agave plant by compressing the juice from the core of the plant. This is called the “pina.” The juice from the agave plant is then filtered, and then heated into simple sugars. Then the juice is concentrated into a light syrup-like condensed liquid, ranging in color from light to dark. The coloring from the syrup depends on the degree of processing the liquids. The key ingredients of agave nectar consist of fructose and glucose. Many chefs and cooks use agave nectar into their cooking recipes and dishes for taste. Many vegans use agave nectar into their diet to replace honey. For a 23.5 oz liquid agave nectar bottle at the store ranges about $5-$6. It may seem a bit expensive, but it is worth adding to your kitchen sweetener cabinet in case to whip out the agave nectar for some delicious meals and drinks. Agave nectar comes in many different types of flavors from light, amber, dark, and caramel. This is a very good sweetener I highly suggest as a substitute for honey.  

The Java Classics EXTREME Machine

I live in a rural area, so there aren't many options for espresso when you're out and about.  There are precisely three Starbucks stores in the entire county (plus two Starbucks branded kiosks inside Safeway stores). 

Our area's parking lots are dotted with those little privately owned espresso stands, of course.  But I have to say, my experience at these has never been great.  I don't think I've ever ordered a drink and had it prepared correctly. 

There's always something.  At the last three places I've been, 1) I ordered an Americano with room but it came without,  2) I ordered a vanilla latte but the barista forgot to add the vanilla, and 3) I failed to specify two shots in a tall drink, and only got one. 

(One shot in a tall is the norm out here, Land of the Snickers Mocha, where no one wants to sully their sweetened flavored coffee drink with, you know, COFFEE.)

This is why Starbucks and McDonalds Café offerings are so popular: they may not be the best, but at least they're consistent.

Meanwhile, every gas station has coffee, but it's terrible.  I mean, is it even funny to make fun of gas station coffee? 

So you can imagine I was intrigued when the nearest Shell station (4 miles away) put in a push-button espresso machine.  C.f. "at least it's consistent."

This one works like a typical hot cocoa machine, where you push the button until your cup is full.  This allows you to mix and match flavors, which is an interesting prospect. 

On the down side, I was a little perplexed by the choices.  The machine offers Extreme Caffeine, Hot Cocoa, Mocha, and White Chocolate Caramel.  As I mulled over the options I furthermore noted that nowhere on the machine did it actually use the word "coffee." 

By process of elimination, I decided that Extreme Caffeine had to be the "baseline latte" option.  Feeling bold, and a little excited by the Mystery Box aspect of this adventure, I pushed the button.  Extreme Caffeine - judging by the looks and the smell that wafted forth - is indeed a latte-like heated beverage.

Thus emboldened, I mixed it about 70/30 with some of the White Chocolate Caramel.  This also proved to be somewhat latte-like.

The resulting beverage had no crema, and little in the way of foam.  The color was pale, maybe a few shades darker than honey.  I don't know about the extremity of the caffeine, but it pushed away the late afternoon headache that had been looming.

The "white chocolate" exists mostly in the way of a vaguely vanilla-ish sweetness.  But I will say this: they nailed the caramel flavor.  What is it about caramel, that it's so easy to transform into an artificial flavor?

Back at home I perused the Java Classics website.  I was relieved to discover that both Extreme Caffeine and White Chocolate Caramel contain actual coffee (instant coffee though it may be).  The first ingredient in most of the Java Classics offering is "sugar," as you might expect. 

Although not an espresso beverage, and only barely a coffee drink, the Java Classics machine at least delivers on its promise of consistency.  I don't know about that "Extreme" thing, though.  Extreme Caffeine contains only 90mg of caffeine per 8oz serving, which is more than Mountain Dew but less than an average cup of coffee, and about half what you get in a single shot of espresso.

National Coffee Day

Seattle and coffee go together so well that when I am describing things that go together well, I say, "they go together like Seattle and coffee". There is something about those little beans that make the nine months of bland weather bearable. If you have not heard today, September 29th, is National Coffee Day. I would say that we should all celebrate this amazing day by having a cup of the good stuff - but I am betting most people in Seattle are already doing that. As for those of you who are not - drink up!

Now if only I could find a few local places that are celebrating this great day (by giving away stuff for free or at a discount). I would be surprised if there was not anything being offered at some of the great Seattle coffee joints like Caffe Vita, Bauhaus, Top Pot, Cafe Presse - or even the chains like Starbucks, and Seattle's Best. I guess I'll have to hunt around and see what I can find.

Oh, and before I forget - am I the only one who finds it odd that today is also the day Budweiser is doing the ‘National Happy Hour’ where they are offering free beer? It is like they did it knowing that the citizens of Seattle also enjoy drinking alcohol, too. It is also the cycle of alcohol and coffee that keeps the city running. I wonder sometimes if the whole world revolves around our fair city.

Coffee Pot Maggots

I have seen two mentions of coffee pot maggots in the last week.  Call it "red car syndrome" but suddenly it's as if everywhere I turn, I see another story about maggots in coffee pots.

I never even knew this was possible until I watched a recent episode of "Hoarding: Buried Alive."  The woman featured on the show had three coffee pots because, to quote her son, "you get maggots in the coffee pots, and it's easier to just buy a new one than to clean the old one."

The second time I encountered this phenomena was in a recent article on The Consumerist.  Hooray, a McDonalds store announced that it no longer has maggots in its coffee pot!  It seems that the store's coffee maker had been smelling worse and worse and worse.   And finally they opened it up and found that it was full of maggots.

First of all, I still don't fully understand where the maggots are living in these cases.  It must be in the water reservoir, because that's the only place that doesn't get wicked hot during the pot's operation.  But then again you would think it was in the grounds, because there's nothing else for a maggot to eat in a coffee pot.  But don't the grounds get changed?  Wouldn't you just be throwing out the maggots every time you made a new pot, and thus there would be no chance for maggots to build up?

People, it's time we had a talk.  This is an even better reason to clean your coffee pot properly once a month.  I mean, sure, there's that whole thing about the build-up of scale and other mineral deposits which makes your coffee pot run more slowly until eventually it clogs altogether.  There's that.  But I think we can all agree that the possibility of a maggot infestation is much more vivid.

Every month, fill your coffee maker's reservoir with a 50/50 mixture of water and white vinegar.  Empty the filter basket, and run it just as if you were making a pot of coffee, but without the coffee grounds.  After you make a piping hot pot of vinegar water, you will want to flush out the vinegar with a few rounds of fresh water.  I usually find that three pots of hot water is enough to get the vinegar smell out. 

I'm going to lay some tough love on you here.  If there are maggots in your coffee maker, then something has gone very wrong.  Either with your business and its procedures (in the case of that McDonalds) or with your home (in the case of hoarders and the squalid conditions therein). 

I went looking around online and surprisingly found several stories of coffee pot maggots.  One of these was from someone who had forgotten to empty the filter basket before she left on vacation - she came home to a crop of coffee pot maggots.  That's understandable.  But if you encounter maggots in your coffee part during your day-to-day life, then you have a serious problem, and you need to get help.  No fooling.

Photo credit of maggot-free coffee maker: Flickr/dcdan

McDonalds Coffee Guy Is A Confusing Idiot

Dear Undercaffeinated Guy In The McDonalds Commercial: do you realize what a colossal jerk you are?  No one can stand you until you've had your coffee.  Even your poor roommate cowers before your bitchiness.

Don't get me wrong - I sympathize completely.  Anyone who tries to talk to me before I've had my coffee will get only a surly grunt in reply.  

You know what I did about that problem?  I BOUGHT A FREAKIN' COFFEE MAKER.

"Don't talk to me, I haven't had my coffee yet," you keep snapping.  I'm not sure if your self-awareness of this problem is a blessing or a curse.  Potentially both.  On the up side, at least you are aware that you are making other people's lives a misery, and you warn them accordingly.  

On the down side, if you know that you make other people's lives a misery before you have your coffee, and you willfully continue to go all the damn way to McDonald's to get your first cup of coffee, what does that make you?  Evil, maybe.  A colossal jerk, definitely.

I have watched your ad repeatedly over the past few weeks.  It's all over Hulu and the Daily Show commercial feed.  I have had ample time to study your situation.  According to my calculations, it is between half an hour to an hour after you wake up before you get your first cup of coffee.

Or is it?  Let me bookmark a point of confusion.  We'll circle back to it later.

Okay, so you wake up, you shower, you get dressed for work.  (You save time by shaving.  I applaud that, so far as it goes.)  You snap at everyone you encounter.  Judging by your apparel, you have an office job.  Judging by the fact you commute by bus, you live in the city and either don't own a car, or don't take it to work.

Clearly, you are gainfully employed.  Thus I can only speculate as to why you do not own a single coffee-making appliance, despite coffee's great importance to your life.  I own several, in fact.  They're really cheap and easy to find.  You can pick up a French press at a thrift store for a few dollars, and a teakettle to boil water for a few dollars more.  

The mystery as to why you don't own a coffee  maker is one thing.  A further mystery is why, if coffee is that important to you, you don't seemingly have a plan for obtaining it in the morning.  Surely as you travel to work you pass several places that sell coffee.  But apparently you prefer to wander along snapping at people until somehow coffee ends up in your gob.

And now the final mystery: how is it that you do not know that McDonalds serves coffee?  Everyone in the whole entire world knows this.  And yet you feign surprise.  Your eyes even open wide, as if you're more awake just hearing about it.  THIS IS CRAZY.

Mr. "Don't talk to me," I am vexed by your inability to find your way out of this predicament.  Please send me your address, and I will mail you a jar of Folgers Crystals.

Japan Apologizes to American WW2 - POWs?

Government Apologizes; Companies that used Slave Labor Silent.

Yesterday in Tokyo, the Japanese foreign minister, Katsuya Okada, said to an American group of six former World War II prisoners of war, "I offer my deep, heartfelt apology for the inhuman treatment you suffered."

90-year-old Lester Tenney, a survivor the Bataan Death March in 1942, and leader of the POW group's, said, "he welcomed the government's apology but still seeks recognition from the private companies that 'used and abused' prisoners in their mines and factories, often under brutal conditions." Mr Tenney said, "At no time have we gotten from these private companies just a letter. These private companies have kept quiet for 65 years. It is an insult, because by their keeping quiet they are hoping we will die off.'"

After surviving the death march, Mr Tenney was taken to Japan and forced to work as a slave laborer for Mitsui Mining Co. — now Nippon Coke and Engineering Co. This company and others, if they are doing business in America, need to be exposed, and their customers need to be informed of the companies' horrible mistreatment of American World War Two POWs.

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