Over-hyped coffee
 

Kona coffee from Hawaii? Blue Mountain coffee from Jamaica? My boss tells me they are bitter and unpleasant tasting, and the kudos is strictly a marketing ploy.

I'm sure people appreciate different flavors and strengths in coffee, but I think I'd like to go to Hawaii and Jamaica and taste the real thing for myself!

Starbucks is certainly overhyped and has great marketing. Dunkin' Donuts, ditto. Fancy coffee makers, Gevalia, pod things--pretty much all bunk. What do you think?

Blue Mountain coffee is the shizznit

if I can get some just roasted a few minutes ago coffee it beats anything coming out of a bag or a can.
It's like bread, every minute out of the oven the clock is ticking. at a certain point the freshness or lack thereof plateaus.

I don't usually care too much about coffee but I do love a Gloria Jeans Latte. They're my favourite.

Anderson's mom?

I'm no goffee snob, I harly drink the stuff, but I hate standard American coffee. I like what I think you call "dark roast". I generally don't care where it comes from or what it's called as long as it's in that ballpark.

No-one, chain or not, does a hot chocolate like Hudsons.

Kona and Blue Mountain are both rare and expensive. I shudder to look at the pricetags per pound ... I don't know that I've ever had pure either, mainly get the blends.

I have a Keurig, and prefer a strong, dark roast coffee. Most of the Kona blends (usually about 10% Kona) seem weak to me.

We went to Hawaii on our honeymoon years ago and brought back a few pounds of 100% Kona when we visited that coast. Everybody raved about it, but I couldn't really tell anything special about it. I thought it was neat to see all the coffee plants though. Did you know coffee is a red berry on the plant? The "bean" is the seed inside.

Picture taken October 7th, 1993.

I don't think we have Hudsons up here. If we do I've never heard of them.

There's a place at stanthorpe which is basically a little sweets shop way off the beaten track, and they do the best hot chocolates I've ever had in my life. I asked what the secret was, and apparently they slightly thicken them with potato starch which is what makes them seem so rich and delicious.

I used to drink really shitty machine coffee as a stimulant/ weight loss thang, but I literally held my breath to swallow. Then some friends ordered coffee at the end of a meal we'd shared and it smelled so GOOD. It was probably the only cup I really enjoyed. And it was a good restaurant, so no doubt it was expensive coffee.

We used to have a coffee house on the High Street and the smell of roasting coffee is a really nostalgic one for me.

Can't drink it now of course. It was identified as a migraine trigger and responsible for some of my insomnia. I found caffeine-free coffee not worth drinking, whic proved I'd never really enjoyed it. Caffeine free tea is still part of my daily routine though.

Just had a look at the website and there's about 7 Hudsons outlets in Queensland including at Brisbane airport. They use powder rather than syrup for their hot chocolates and put in loads of marshmellows which although not Pascal still work quite well when melted.

Hey Ali, saw a couple of months ago on TV a short piece on Gympie and they were saying that it's sort of preserved in time (the 50s from the footage they showed). Is it?

hehe...I'm responding to this post after an arvo of cosmo's and a couple of wines with dinner, but YES, Gympie is stuck somewhere in the 50's lol. It's really not worse than any other country town in terms of architecheture, but there's just something so olde world about it. I like it, but it's a great source of amusement for some. The nice thing is that most of the people that live there seem to take it all in their stride. It's a nice place. I've yet to meet a rude person who lives there.

eta: that doesn't mean the town doesn't have it's fair share of dickheads. lol

Huh. Peruvian champurrado. Sorta.

Thanks Ali. Dickheads are pretty hard to avoid completely.

Next time I'm in Qld, I'll make a point of going and checking it out.

You'd better let me know when you're coming and I'll give you the tour if you like. :)

Champurrado

And an illustrated how-to

Comes off sort of like a drinkable edition of some kind of chocolate pudding. Usually served warm. Flavor is usually rather delicate, and is none the worse for the addition of some cinnamon as well. Mexican chocolate often adds cinnamon anyway. And you can put more chocolate in! Even hot chiles -- powdered.

"Piloncillo" is just little conical sugarloaves of brown sugar, honey-brown affairs about as long as your index finger and twice as thick. Hard as a rock and quite difficult to grind or break up into anything sprinkleable. Brown sugar or brown half-and-half with Demarara/turbinado/blonde sugar is a good equivalent for flavor.

If there is sufficient GLOBAL WARMING...

...ahemhem...

We may see Colorado Mountain Grown competing with Colorado Piedmont Grown and Plains Grown.

And New Mexico Piñon coffee would have an all-native terroir.

And Hobart AA Robusta.

Cool. Will do. It will be quite a few months away though. Not sure when I'll be back in Oz next.

I'm not a coffee drinker - just never developed much of a taste for it (plus, coffee breath is AWFUL).

Oddly enough, I'm directly related to Jerry Baldwin (my cousin) who was one of the original Starbucks guys. Jerry went on to become Peet of Peet's Coffee. Later he became a wine grower in northern California.

I don't drink wine, either. Why couldn't I be related to the Maker's Mark people?

*pouts*

Find a Maker's Mark relative who likes coffee and you're good to go.

what kind of wine does he grow?

does he stomp the grapes?

I saw what you did there. ;) He grows zinfandel grapes.

Nah. He just gives them a very stern look and they instantly begin weeping into the vats. :D

I am sure if Bruce were here, he would have dug up the same thread title from 1989.

*sigh* Those were the days.

I have to admit that as a casual coffee drinker, I find the pod coffee very convenient and sufficiently tasty. Besides which, I rarely have the need to make coffee for a group.

Speaking of pinon, has anyone ever had pinon nuts salt roasted? I have a friend who gives me a big bag of them every year. I ate them like crazy until I found out they are mostly made of fat. But they are yummy.

I like Dazbog when it comes to coffee places.

I do very much like Blue mountain and kona coffees. It really only makes a difference when it is fresh out of the coffeemaker, though.

There's a banner up on the street poles around work which I've been meaning to take a picture of since this thread appeared...tomorrow could be the day that I actually take the photo. My only excuse is that taking the pic involves having to cross the street bridge...pathetic.

Language NSFW

ƒuck yeah

Well played.

Note to self find single serving Starbucks next time. Pete's friend/cow-orker came back from the shit and his first words were, "Thanks for the coffee."

I left photographing the street banner too late. They've taken it down. It was for Luwak coffee and the advertising line was "the most expensive coffee in the world"...don't think the marketing department had thought that one through too well.

... better than cat shit coffee?

I could really go for some over-hyped coffee right now.

Para bailar La Bamba se necesita un poco de café. . . why Mildred, it's so obvious.

Even if it's hell on the scansion.

Thank you Chuck Norris.

About whom nobody yet plays Six Degrees Of Kevin Bacon.

Chuck sent away to Uncle Milt's for a Fire Ant Farm.

R. Lee Ermey sent Uncle Milt's a sharp letter about their not stocking any Marine Ant Farms.

Population density here should not be measured in terms of people, but in terms of how many Starbucks there are to the square kilometre. It's ridiculous: some buildings/shopping malls have two.

I dunno... Stella Artois ran their "Reassuringly expensive" ads for years. It convinced me - I thought it was an upmarket lager. I was horrified when I found out my favourite tipple was generally called Wifebeater.

:eek: Stella Artois has only become commonly available on the Australian market in the last 5-10 years and being European, as far as I know, it's in the upmarket category. Tell me more about the wife beater thing.

Because it has a higher alcoholic rating than most lagers it has earned the name 'wifebeater'.

As in, I'll have a pint of the old Wifebeaters please.

Can't see that particular ordering phrase being used in the upmarket pubs where Stella is served in Australia, but as George said in the last series of BlackAdder "well, cover me with eggs and flour and bake me for 40 minutes."

It's not something I'd say at the bar when ordering, I'd just ask for a pint of Stella. But if a mate asked me what I wanted to drink, I might say, a pint of wifebeaters. Said mate would then go and order a pint of Stella :p

:)