(no subject)

[chipotle]

The last two jobs I’ve been at have had something relativelyunusual for offices: drinkable coffee. Not great coffee, but drinkable. One place had the typical packets of ground coffee, but it was Starbucks’ French roast; the place before that had coffee from Peet’s, our regional equivalent to Starbucks, which came pre-ground in big plastic containers. Bashing Starbucks is fashionable and not entirely undeserved, and Peet’s thinks more highly of themselves than they should. But, either of them are a lot better than the generic brand the company that services the coffee pots will bring you.

Alas, the company I’m at now doesn’t do that. They have coffee service coffee.

I’ve been thinking of doing something about this for a while, and I was toying around with the idea of buying a Senseo for the office. These are little machines that make single servings of “crema” coffee, which is essentially coffee made with an espresso-style brewing method but with several times more water, that can normally only be made with relatively powerful espresso machines. They’re neat little things, excessively European, and given their “pod system” (little single-serving packets of coffee), very convenient for an office.

On the down side, at $60 the machine’s fairly expensive (although not compared to espresso machines!), and it can only take its own coffee pods. I’ve heard they’re reasonably good blends, but if you buy a batch, how fresh is it? When coffee’s exposed to air, its flavor degrades fairly quickly. And what if you want a different blend? “Medium roast” is like “red wine.” You can find some nice red table wines, but a whole new world opens up if you get more specific. (And anyone who doesn’t think the wine and coffee comparison is valid has never had a freshly roasted estate Ethiopian Sidamo.)

So, after some waffling, I decided to get:

• a $3 plastic cone filter holder that sits on a mug
• a $3 box of paper filters
• a $15 electric kettle

I ground about a half-pound of Casa Segura coffee this morning and brought it here in a Mason jar. In retrospect, this was probably too much, going back to the “exposure to air = bad” problem, but the chances are that even after a week it’ll be better than the coffee in the kitchen.

And, it’s always entertaining to get stares from coworkers. “You set up your own coffee brewing station?”

Comments

[ladyperegrine.livejournal.com]

I found the wine/coffee comparison an apt one. I absolutely love the taste of both, but I know more about wine selection than coffee selection.

Which brands do you recommend? I'm always on the lookout for coffee that's friendly both to the environment (songbirds come to mind) as well as to small farmers. But taste is important too.

Where do you get your coffee? Are there places online you would recommend?

Thanks. :-)

[chipotle.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I've been getting green coffee beans from Sweet Maria's and roasting them myself; they do sell roasted beans, too, I think, although they're primarily for home coffee roasters. (They sell equipment for that, and give you general tips on how to do it with popcorn poppers!)

Thanksgiving Coffee is in Northern California and they're very environmentally-conscious, and have a reputation for having pretty good coffee in the taste department, too.

Since I've been too lazy to be roasting my own recently I've been getting coffee from a local roastery, Barefoot Coffee. They also sell online, it looks like.

http://www.sweetmarias.com/
http://www.thanksgivingcoffee.com/
http://www.barefootcoffeeroasters.com/

[momentrabbit.livejournal.com]

Occasionally I wonder how practical keeping a spraycan of heavier-than-air inert gas around would be to protect certain foodstuffs - like coffee beans - from oxidizing. Seems a bit more trouble than it's probably worth, and what I can find tends to be designed for liquid preservation (http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=2&p=30268&cat=1,190,44133&ap=1).

That and enacting a miniature halon dump every morning seems a bit excessive. Fun, but excessive.

That said, it's time for new beans at Casa Lagomorphica, and I feel a trifle adventuresome - and utterly lost. Would Chipotle-the-store-owner have suggestions about any of these? (http://www.birdsandbeans.com/coffees.shtm)

[chipotle.livejournal.com]

Well, I really like a lot of Ethiopian coffees I've tried, although they can be a little startling, particularly at a light roast -- they often have pronounced fruity highlights, like blueberry or lemon. I also usually like Costa Rican and Guatemalan coffees. I'm still something of a neophyte myself in that there's lots of coffees I haven't tried out there. :)

Tugrik has a vacuum sealer that normally works on bags, but has a canister attachment which also happens to work with Mason jars. I've occasionally used that for storing coffee beans.

[typographer.livejournal.com]

Hmmmmmmm, we have a coffee service....

...Starbucks coffee service. But here in the original home of both Starbucks and SBC. We have an espresso machine in our floor's mini kitchen, too.

I used to do the french press thing for my work coffee, but I'm a bit too clumsy to be handling that much hot water in a frangible container on a regular basis. :P

[rancourt.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'd disagree there. Coffee is rather like wine. Of course, I'm an expatriate Californian, too...

I've always wondered why more people don't actually think about what type of coffee they like. Often you'll find someone with a favorite source to buy it from, but really no good sense of what's actually *in* the cup they're drinking from. I gave up asking most of my friends what kind of coffee they like, because the usual response was "from XYZ coffeehouse."

Me, give me a just-slightly-overroasted cup of Sumatra, roughly 125% conventional strength, grounds fine enough to lightly stain the teeth, and memories of my coding days come flooding back...

[chastmastr.livejournal.com]

Neat! We can buy Peet's at Safeway here, and if it's regional SF Bay coffee, I'm keen to try it... which is the type you like best from them?

[chipotle.livejournal.com]

Peet's tends to have a very kick-you-in-the-teeth approach to coffee, from my experience -- like Starbucks, they're big fans of dark roasts, which I'm not so much anymore. So, I haven't tried a whole lot of their stuff. On the flip side, their coffee tends to be fresher than Starbucks, as they still roast in relatively small batches. (Given that major metro areas now have a Starbucks every 160 feet or so, I doubt they could do small batches if they tried, but I digress.)

I did like Peet's Garuda blend, and the Sierra Dorada. Their Major Dickason's is good, although when they say "full bodied" they mean "bends your spoon as you try to stir it." (That's one even I add cream to.)

Peet's also has a pretty nice line of teas, incidentally.

[chastmastr.livejournal.com]

If it'll make us think of SF, I'm keen on it. We're really, really eager to move out there... by the way, if you know of anything in editing or research, let me know. I can send my resume if you like.

[chipotle.livejournal.com]

Whether it makes you think of SF is a state of mind, I suppose. :) Peet's started in Berkeley. I think of it--and Starbucks, when it comes down to it--as canonical Pacific Northwest coffee: roasted to within an inch of its life and brewed a little too strong.

I don't come across research jobs very often but if something pops up I'd certainly let you know. As for editing, it's worthwhile considering whether you'd be open to technical writing/editing positions at companies around the SF Bay area. You may not be hugely keen on the private sector (for reasons I'm in sympathy with), but even in the post-dotcom era such things are fairly big out here.

I'd also check with some of the universities and their job boards. Ones I can think of offhand in the (general) area are UC San Francisco, UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz, San Jose State University, Sonoma State University, Santa Clara University, and of course Stanford. (And there's a host of community colleges lurking around.)

[chastmastr.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Oh, I can deal with the private sector, though I'd prefer a non-profit. But in any case I would like to leave the government, I think. I don't have the sorts of retirement benefits under the old system from before I came on board; whatever federal agency I would move to will be either hampered or corrupted by its Bush-appointed head for the next four years (the people on the lower levels tend more to believe in the mission of the agencies, from what I've seen here in DC; but when the real goal of, say, the appointed EPA head is to loosen up the very rules the EPA is there to enforce, it makes work very frustrating for people -- to work for, say, the Dept. of Education under the current head would be an absolute nightmare); there is less and less of a guarantee, I think, of my status as a gay employee being protected, and I think I'd be in a safer environment working in a private-sector job in SF than in a federal one here. (And it might be nice to have health benefits for my cub! Can't get that in a federal job...)