Coffee

Came across a memorable quote while reading a book on Paris recently. It quotes Charles Maurice de Talleyrand. He must have been a flexible sort as he survived through Louis XVI, the Revolution, Napoleon and the two following monarchs

"Black as the devil, hot as hell, pure as an angel, sweet as love"

You can try that line next time you hit Starbuck and they ask you what you want!

I never go to Starbucks anymore, I never did see what all the hype was about. First time I entered a Starbucks was in Seattle, on one of our RV trips. Redding was a bit behind in the coffee craze but once the locals caught on, we got started visiting a few. Finally found a Coffee Depot located on a crazy corner at a very busy intersection. I thought the City had lost their minds when I saw that small building there, in was actually dangerous getting into the small lot. The coffee was delicious and I have been drinking the same one for many years. They have my drink ready as soon as I pull up. Nice! Recently, they were merged with Pacific Green and have added some new goodies. including a great Salt Water Taffy that is great. Now, we have many coffee brewing places, getting great reviews, but I stick to the one I love and it is on my routes to all my errands. By the way, beer brewers are very popular here too, and I hear good reports on the food they are serving.

Iused to grab a coffee at Starbucks when I was a working stiff because they had an outlet I walked past on the way to my office, but now we make our own, whether drip, French press or espresso. I've been buying beans from a small Canadian roaster that I like.

When I retired, my Starbucks plastic cup went into a top cupboard (aka oblivion) likely never to be used again.

We have a daily routine lately - we sit in front of a fire and listen to one or both sides of an LP in the living room, reading a book and sipping either tea or an espresso.

To my palate, anyway, the West Coast chains (Starbucks, Peet's) burn the beans when they roast them, and the result is liquid tar. I only patronize Starbucks at airports.

When I was in Seattle on a business trip, I was amazed and dismayed that, in spite of their being at least one coffee shop on every corner, the drivers behaved as if they were fast asleep. Boston has nasty, aggressive drivers, but at least they are aware of their surroundings. I almost got into an accident when someone did a left-turn-on-red in front of me when I had the green light.

The other aggressive coffee I encountered was on my first day wine tasting in France. I don't care for scalded milk so I left the lait out of the cafe au lait that I had with my croissant. Big mistake. By noon I had severe heartburn. Frank Zappa was right when he wrote, in his song "In France, "they got some coffee eatin' right through the cup".

-Paul W.

The value of a Starbuck's, as for many chain restaurants, is that you know what you will get. So, if I am travelling for work, and time is of the essence, then a coffee at Starbuck's is better than no coffee. Sometimes, it is even better than taking a random chance on diner takeout. But, as to quality, well, the laws of mathematics suggest that it cannot be good: before the whole PNW coffee craze, the world has thus-and-such much good coffee in it, after the craze there is much more coffee sold but it is not magically better. That is why the heavy roast: it provides some kind of flavor to otherwise average beans.

I am still a working boy so I drink the free coffee at work. It is brewed by a self-managing machine: it grabs beans from a hopper on the top, grinds them, steeps them, delivers the fluid, and pushes the grinds into a waste bin. It's an impressive bit of monkeydom and it even sounds a bit like the Tardis while it works. If only the final product were better. (...but the price is right).

Left to my own devices, I make French Press or pour-over or cold-brew at home; I go to the corner store for espresso drinks.

[Jenise]

I love coffee. We make two tall French presses (individual cups) each morning; I typically only drink half. Bob drinks all his and reheats my leftovers later in the day. If I desire more caffeine later in the day, I turn to tea.

But while out and about we sometimes get an afternoon coffee (triple grande cappucino nonfat) to share. I own 3500 shares of Starbucks stock but in town typically revert to a local brewer whose politics are closer to the Hobby Lobby crowd than my own, so it pains me to say I support them with my business instead of Starbucks but most of the time, I do because of the whole Charbucks problem. At home, we use only medium roast and sometimes blend that with a lighter roast. We both despise dark roasts. But still, sometimes we're customers if that's what's available.

Speaking of PNW coffee a new chain that IPO'd recently and has become a stock market darling is Dutch Brothers. There aren't any north of Seattle but while travelling the last 12 days we sampled their wares in Eureka, California, which was terrible, and again a few days later on the Oregon coast just to see if our first experience was a fluke.

It wasn't.

First order: one cappucino (as above) and one frappucino (Bob loves them). Huge drinks--their 'medium' is 16 ounces where Starbuck's medium (aka grande) is only 12. Drank like a latte, which I hated, and the coffee element tasted of cereal. Bob's mochacino or whatever they called it tasted like a liquid fudgcicle--no coffee flavor whatsoever. Too, I note they were plastered in colorful posters pushing tuitti fruitti drinks--they seem oriented toward the younger crowd not likely to show up at a Starbucks.

Both locations we went to were packed--drive thru only, with lines for cars on both sides of a hut. Each had at six cars in it. Too, at each there was a roving ambassador with an Ipad processing orders from the car lines. By the time customers reach the window, the drinks are almost ready, just pay and go. Despite the lines, it goes fast.

The second time we ordered an Americano just to check out the quality and strength of the unadorned coffee. Terrible. Again: weak, cereal. Never again.