{"id":1677,"date":"2009-05-12T09:20:57","date_gmt":"2009-05-12T16:20:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nerdseyeview.com\/blog\/?p=1677"},"modified":"2010-10-03T12:34:43","modified_gmt":"2010-10-03T19:34:43","slug":"some-thoughts-on-coffee-about-which-i-know-nothing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nerdseyeview.com\/blog\/2009\/05\/12\/some-thoughts-on-coffee-about-which-i-know-nothing\/","title":{"rendered":"Some Thoughts on Coffee, About Which I Know Nothing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Cafe<\/a>In the last month I found myself chatting with two coffee roasters while they worked, one at Mt. Hood Roasters<\/a> in Rhododendron, Oregon, and one at Java Kai<\/a> in Hanalei, Hawaii. I did not admit to either of them that the coffee we drink the most of at our house is Trung Nguyen<\/a>, a mass produced Vietnamese coffee that we buy ground in big quantities from our local Asian supermarket.<\/p>\n

We buy this stuff because, well, we like <\/em>it. I acquired my first package out of desperation. I was in Seattle’s International District and I needed coffee, stat. When I opened the can — it was still in cans then, it smelled of chocolate. Brewed up it tasted very smooth, not bitter at all, and it held that nice deep aroma. It’s cheap, too, really cheap, compared to anything else I like.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I have a friend<\/a> who’s a roaster and when she stayed with us, it pained her to watch us slurp down the Trung Nguyen. I can relate; I’d probably have a fit if you told me your cake of choice was Twinkies. I get it.\u00a0 But I also think you should eat and drink what tastes best to you, of course, and if you’re truly satisfied with Twinkies after exploring the options, then there’s little I can say to change your mind, nor should I.<\/p>\n

I tasted coffee at each of the roasters, the Barlow Trail at Mt. Hood, the Kauai Peaberry at Java Kai. I rather liked the Barlow Trail, I was neutral on the Kauai Peaberry. I did get yummy coffee at the on-site cafe the NaPali Gallery and Cafe<\/a> (at the resort where we stayed in Kauai) but I couldn’t tell you what beans they used.<\/p>\n

When I asked the roaster at Java Kai why it was so hard to get good coffee in Hawaii, where they are supposed to have some of the best java in the world, he told me that most of what you’re served as Kona in the islands is “10% Kona, 90% Colombian floor shavings,” that the good stuff gets shipped right out of Hawaii, pronto, and retails for around 40 bucks a pound.<\/p>\n

The coffee from Mt. Hood Roasters doesn’t cost anywhere near that much – it’s quite affordable, the roast we liked so well is about 10 bucks a pound. We bought a bunch of it, some for ourselves, some to send away. In Hawaii, I settled for a series of four dollar lattes, a poor investment, to be sure.<\/p>\n

I’m happy to be educated out of my taste for a commodity coffee, but my addiction stands in the way. I’m also a sucker for the morning or cafe house ritual, the leisure and laziness implied in a good cup of coffee, be it cheap Vietnamese, pricey Hawaiian, or something reasonable and delicious in between. Time with the roasters has made me see coffee as more of a craft and given my obsession for the bakery arts, this seems an appropriate thing.<\/p>\n

No real conclusions here, but if you want to have coffee, hey, I’m around.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the last month I found myself chatting with two coffee roasters while they worked, one at Mt. Hood Roasters in Rhododendron, Oregon, and one at Java Kai in Hanalei, Hawaii. I did not admit to either of them that the coffee we drink the most of at our house is Trung Nguyen, a mass … <\/p>\n


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