I find it hillarious when people bash Starbucks. Lets see....it's a company that buys coffee at a fair price, offers health insurance to it's employees starting at 20 hours per week. This includes spouses and live-in partners....oh yeah...they make a lot of money, that's why they're evil.

Back to the subject, I worked at Starbucks, along with other coffee shops when I was in college. A bigger factor than the coffee was the brewing method. Try different ways to brew your coffee. Press pots are a good way to get a lot of flavor out of the beans. You'll find a lot depends upon your mood, and tastes that day too. Sort of like having a cigar. It can taste horrible one day, and then a few weeks later you love it.

Try McLaughlin Coffee Co. A friend of mine runs the company, which used to only distribute to local coffee bars and gourmet restaurants. Recently they started selling retail online, including Jamaican Blue Mountain. Mike McLaughlin's top picks are the Ethiopian Harrar and the Italian. He thinks they're as good as JBM, but in a different way. I have to agree.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1137953644.jpg


Almost forgot... Mike drives a '99 996. ;)

I don't bash Starbucks the company...I just don't like their coffee. I'll drink it over 7-11 or other stuff, but if there is a Peets around, I only darken Starbucks doorway to use my T-mobile hotspot account. In fact, my local Peets is about 5 doors down from a Starbucks. Often I'll go the Peets to write for an hour or two during the afternoon, then walk down and sit outside of Starbucks for 5 or 10 mintues to hop online. Then walk back to Peets.

Where is Peets in So Cal? I have not seen one and would like to try it. I have seen the coffee in Bevmos but would love to try it before I buy any at the store.

:D I wonder if I can get a family discount...

For me, that's a good reason to NOT go there. Also explains why they are higher priced than other coffee-houses that have much better quality. Frankly, I just don't like the flavor of their coffee.

http://www.peets.com/stores/store_list.asp#6

Doh' I guess I could have checked there first... Thanks! :D

What is a good bean to use for Cold Press coffee?

Caribou Coffee has a "Seattle Cold Press" that is AWESOME, but $3 for coffee is few and far between right now...

I have no problem with the company per se... it's just their WAY overpriced mediocre coffee beans that I have an issue with...:)
My girlfriend loves their 'fru fru drinks' though...

A co-worker in my office has a sibling who owns a coffee farm back home in Vietnam. He came back once from a trip with freshly roasted beans and stuck about a 2 pounds in the break room. Even with my ham-handed methods of coffeemaking, it was the best damn coffee I'd ever tasted. The complexity of good coffee rivals the complexity of good wine.

This place is the best:

www.killdevilcoffee.com


Call them up and they will roast to order. Fresh coffee is the best coffee and nothing that has sat on a shelf can compare.

Try illy the best daily coffee

Peet's - used to be a Major Dickason's drinker - now its Decaf Sumatra. Still yummy, but without the caffeine

In my espresso machine, it's Illy.

Presspot, Peets Major Dickasons Blend

Drip? Do I hafta?

Decaf? Why bother?

Best coffee i had was in a small town in central Malaysia called Ipoh. Small open air coffee shop, guy in the back roasting locally grown beans in a giant wok with fresh butter. Guy next to him grinding just roasted beans, and another next to him straining hot water through the freshly roasted and ground beans thorugh a sock like contraption. Served with condensed milk. All this for $0.05 a cup. That place is jam packed all day and night.

The sights, smell, sounds and flavor was simply amazing. And i do not even like coffee.

alf

Holy disappearing posts, Batman! OK, I'll try again now that we're back to old-style:

What about decaf? I've been looking for a good decaf espresso for the last month, since I got the machine. Best I've tried so far is the Illy green label. Most decafs taste like someone sliced the middle out of them.

Any recommendations?

When I go to Europe I like to pick up a few packs of Cafe Hag and brew it really dark. A good cheap decaf.

Big Peets fan here too. My company roasts its own beans for company-wide coffee, its pretty good but not stellar.

illy and their ilk.

The Italians really know how to make the coffee drinks. The local hipster "roaster" makes a cup of milky mudd compared to the old gents at the best pizza joints..http://www.pelicanparts.com/support/smileys/pint1.gif

Alf - you remind me of Mr. Peterman from Seinfeld!