I have failed at my last few attempts to buy good coffee. The last bag of Community beans (medium roast) I got were a bit funny-tasting. Trey decided it must have just been a bad batch.
This time I decided I would try Starbucks coffee beans (forgetting for some reason that my husband's faithful employer, Seattle Drip, has no tolerance for Starbucks) because I've heard they have good beans; it's just that they burn them when they brew the coffee in the shop. I guess I should have made the connection that if people wanted the Starbucks taste and they weren't in the shop, the beans sold in Wal-Mart would have to produce a similar taste to the coffee brewed in the store.
Anyway, the coffee beans make exceptionally strong, burnt-tasting coffee.
I will have to try again next time.
In other news, Trey has been super sweet to me this week. He has made supper, cleaned the kitchen, put away dishes, and run two loads of laundry. And he gives me lots of hugs. He's the best husby.
7 comments:
I'm sad to say. I think it's the coffee maker. Since we share the same coffee maker, we also seem to get very inconsistent brews.
Our coffee maker also does not brew very good coffee no matter what beans we use. As a former Starbucks district-wide employee of the quarter I can explain what you need for good coffee and the problem with Starbucks beans.
For good coffee...
-choose beans that you like. "Mild" is more bitter (acidic like grapefruit) while "bold" or "dark roast" is more smooth.
-have the beans ground correctly for your machine.
-use high-quality filtered water
-measure correctly (2T per 6oz water)
-use a coffee maker that brews at 190 degrees in order to melt the delicious coffee oils. It’s sitting around on the heat, not the brewing, that makes the coffee taste truly burnt.
-consider using a metal filter so that the coffee oils won't get caught and wasted in your paper filters.
The problem with Starbucks coffee is not that they "burn" their beans during either roasting or brewing. The "bold" beans have a more intense flavor and must be roasted longer to tone down the flavor. The "mild" beans have more acid because they have been roasted for a shorter time causing them to taste bitter to me. When Starbucks stated, most of the robusta beans used in the U.S. were (are) extremely low quality and even included rotten beans and twigs in the mix. As a reaction to that, Starbucks used/uses only arabica beans. The problem is that the high-quality robusta beans used in real Italian coffee is what gives the coffee its delicious fatty cream. Starbucks coffee is lacking that and will always taste harsher than real Italian coffee.
http://landofathousandhillscoffee.com
the best coffee ever :-)
gee - i feel special, my $10 wal-mart coffee maker never lets me down. of course, i do have coffee that sara brought back from ethiopia and that my sister brought back from jamaica and....i sense this train of thought may not be helpful.
the end.
oh wait. i love you. :-)
now the end.
I hold very firm opinions regarding the production of a cup of coffee. Taste can be a matter of opinion when all other factors are adequately controlled. I concur with the assessment that Starbucks is harsh tasting and that their roasting process produces this taste. Of note I've been told that the local company 'Cups' roasts their beans on a weekly interval. They do have good tasting coffee and I think that the fresh roasting adds a great deal to that fact. You may want to try them. I prefer the French Roast style of whole bean coffee (Community is my favorite). I also like that arabica bean best. I think french roast has a mellow full favor without the bitterness of starbucks. I think the most important part of making good coffee is cleaning the pot with soap to remove the old burnt/oxidized oils that accumulate form the old coffee on the surface of the pot and leach into the next brew. These oils impart a stale bitter taste (like cotton wool in the mouth) that is so familar to us in old coffee.
Have you ever tried Kona coffee; it's Hawaiian. Yum!
I don't think I have, Mims, but I've heard you and Dad mention its yumminess before. Maybe I can try that kind next time. Where do you buy it?
:-) your comment was wonderful to read. I would clean the bathroom if it meant seeing you.
I suppose that fall does signal the beginning of winter (and death) and spring holds lots of promise, summer seems to be where time stands still and I really think I would like it more if I wasn't so prone to "glistening" and so relegated to office work.
i miss you alot.
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