81 replies to this topic

[Vital Information]

Anyone else buy their coffee at Costco?

At the Costco in Chicago, they roast the coffee in house. It is obviously not artisinal roasting, all done by machine. No one's taking a few beans out every few minutes to assess the color, aroma and sheen of the beans. When the light turns red, it's done. Still, it is VERY fresh. I always reach around to find the hottest bag.

And cheap too. Last week they had a Peruvian coffee that they do not usually carry. Very good.

[ampletuna]

I don't drink coffee so feel free to ignore this recommendation!

but I have some of Union Roasters coffee at home at the moment for guests and it is supposed to be very good.

[Vanessa]

I don't drink coffee so feel free to ignore this recommendation!

but I have some of Union Roasters coffee at home at the moment for guests and it is supposed to be very good.

It is.

v

[NeroW]

I buy coffee from a friend of mine who owns a wine/coffee roaster/fancy food store here in Kalamazoo: http://www.upson.com/.

[Country Cook]

I like to buy local and I am lucky to have a good custom roaster with ecletic taste. Lately I am enjoying Ethiopean dark roast (very full bodied).

[fantasty]

I want to start making my own coffee at the office. I want low tech so that I don't have to deal with the mess of cords beneath my desk. At most I'll need two cups at a time. Is a press pot is the way to go?

[oraklet]

i think there can be no doubt that you get the most flavours out of your coffee on a decent espresso machine. you will notice that even a dark bean won't taste bitter on a good machine, and lavazza, for instance, will not feel overly acidic. on my krups (the rather cheap one which is not just a mokka pot in disguise), lavazza is pleasantly balanced (or at least it is now that i've come to know the machine well), whereas on a better machine, illy will be better. i never tried home roasted super beans, so i can't say if that might be even better...

anyway: it's the high pressure that does the trick. and whatever bean or grind you chose, you can't have that pressure with drip, french press, mokka pot or the bodum santos. sure, you can get nice coffee, but you'll never get the delicious chock of balanced aromas filling your mouth that espresso gives you.

in short: know your coffee by the crema!

that said, i personally think the best low-tech coffee can be made in a french press - but to get a nice full taste, you have to use a lot of coarse ground coffee and very short brewing time. it tends to be rather expensive that way

[Elissa]

Peet's by post.

[Squeat Mungry]

Graffeo. Simply the world's finest coffee.

[Rail Paul]

Peet's by post.

Nice write-up in Saturday's NY Times about Peet's efforts to expand (more stores, more mail order) while remaining both local and artisanal.

Now Peet's, which also sells over the Internet and by mail order, has significantly stepped up its expansion plans. It is opening more retail stores in the West and introducing its brand to a number of specialty and high-end grocery stores across the country, hoping to entice a growing group of coffee iconoclasts.

"Peet's grew out of a passion for specialty coffee," said Kerri Goodman-Small, publisher of Hospitality News, a food service industry journal. "Starbucks focuses on consistency and a variety of beverages."

For all their differences in size and style, Peet's and Starbucks are linked by their past: the current director of Peet's, Gerald Baldwin, helped found Starbucks before selling to Howard Schultz, who built it into the ubiquitous brand of today.


Peet's

[omnivorette]

A coffee story.

Eyebrows worked on the Bowery for years, and he drank coffee in several of the old time Chinatown coffee shops every day, usually twice a day. He noticed that many of his favorite places used Martinson's coffee, but it was a blend not available in the supermarket. One day, years ago, he accosted a delivery guy as he was delivering to one of the coffee shops, and convinced the driver to sell him a case of the coffee for cash, off the truck.

Determined to find a steady and reliable supply, Eyebrows called Martinson's, and the parent company, and all kinds of distributors, and eventually found a distributor in Chinatown whose clientele consisted almost exclusively of Chinatown restaurants and coffee shops.

He bought coffee from them, cash only, for years - a case at a time. The coffee comes in gold foil pouches, 2 lbs each. About a half a year ago, we went downtown to buy another case, and the distributor was no more. It was a tragedy.

So here's the good news - the distributor has reopened under a new name, same location, same woman he dealt with in the past. Her name is Shirley. She told him that her clients are almost all still Chinatown places, with an occasional uptown Chinese restaurant thrown in.

Smart Distributor Inc
23-25 Ludlow St.
212-966-6664
$82.00 for a case (24 lbs)

(Not that anybody is going to rush down there, but you never know...)

Our coffee at home is half Martinson's, half French Market (or sometimes Cafe du Monde). Made in this:

http://www.bodum.us/...oducts&dom=1019
(click on lower right hand corner image...it's the "Santos" )


It's really a great cup of coffee...

[NeroW]

I drink a lot of Intelligentsia lately, since that is what I pour at work. They roast me a special blend for my regular joe, another blend for my espresso, another blend for my iced (which is like crack to me, I absolutely can not get enough of it), and a fourth blend for my decaf--my grinders don't do these particular beans justice, so they grind the decaf for me. But I don't brew pots of decaf, I just make Americanos, since there is hardly any demand for it.

I love coffee, and all things about coffee, and I take great care with my work. That's why I like the Intelligentsia folks. If there's a problem with any of my equipment (it's old, funky, and breaks a lot), they're there within an hour, and the fix is free. Plus, all the repair guys are pretty hot

That said, I am not a huge fan of their regular blend, our "signature" coffee. It's heavy, but that's all it is--there is no particular note to it. Like Starbucks Sumatra, it's high-octane, and that seems to be what most people desire, especially when they're sitting at a table, chugging coffee, smoking cigs, and drawing comics.

The iced coffee roast, though, is excellent (as is the espresso roast). For the iced, I grind great bags of beans and cold-brew them in a big bucket. Then I dilute it with a little water. It's potent, and it has a sweet, deep, almost chocolate flavor. I have never tasted better.

At home I drink Illy Red, free beans from work , or Upson's from Kalamazoo, MI, my all-time favorite artisanal coffee. Their dark roast (Wiener Melange) is my favorite.

So what do you all put in your coffee? I usually take it black (insert Airplane reference here). At the most I will add a splash of 2%.

[omnivorette]

Sugar, half and half. Ahhhhh....

[NeroW]

Sugar, half and half. Ahhhhh....

Sugar?!? For shame!

[Ron Johnson]

My nearest coffeehouse uses Intelligentsia. I think it is pretty good stuff.
I used to only buy Peet's for grinding and brewing at home, but then I found this micro-roastery in town called Sunergos. They roast their beans in the same way as Peet's so it results in that ultra-glossy sheen of oil on the bean, but I can buy it so much fresher.

I take mine with a splash of half and half only. Drinking some right now.