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Coffee dreck

Whale dreck was a substance they had leftover and no use for when they cooked down whales after whaling. I just bought a bag of "Kona Blend" Coffee by "High Mountain Kona" or some such brand and brewed a cup straightaway. It was absolutely terrible, hence my new term "coffee dreck". :D
The girl at the counter even raved to me about how she loved this brand...

I don't know how many of you drink coffee but I like it when I'm at home. I don't drink it anywhere else, cos I don't like it anywhere else. So far I only like Kona Blend by Cameron's Coffee (it has the red heraldic lion/shield on the bag of beans). Other coffees I've tried gag me, tasting rather like a cigarette butt is floating in the cup. My dad drinks Folgers, he gave me a cup of that and I dumped it out when he wasn't looking. I've noticed most coffee beans are black when ground up and have that putrid tobbacco taste but when I grind up Cameron's it's brown and has a really nice smooth flavor (almost a cocoa like aftertaste) even though it's black when brewed and I use it at 2x.

Just curious if anyone else is this picky about coffee or if it's just me... I keep looking for other "good brands" but can't find anything that doesn't taste nasty.

What kind/brand coffee do you like?

Have you ever had pure Kona coffee instead of the Kona Blends ? It's $20 a lb plus postage but if it's better/smoother than even Cameron's I'd like to try it.

Anyone try the "Civet Cat Coffee"? :D
 
There's usually pretty good coffee available around here, so I don't have to be too choosy about brands. One trick I have learned is to put a little splash of cold, fresh water into the coffee immediately after brewing it. According to several of my biochemists friends, adding water to coffee halts a catalytic reaction that causes coffee to develop bitterness as it cools.
I had some sort of Kona once that was really good. I assume it was fairly authentic, as it came from my godfather in Hawaii. I haven't found anything quite like it since, so if you really dig coffee it might be worth it to splurge on a bag.
~Joe
 
I'm fond of the Dunkin' Donuts coffee, whether it's from a bag at home or a cup purchased right at the store. The only problem is there aren't any stores in my area! Good thing I'm headed back up to NJ next week.

I don't really like Starbucks Coffee. It tastes kind of burnt or over-brewed to me.
Although, one exception is their holiday coffees. I've always enjoyed those, particularly the Christmas flavors.

Right now I've been drinking the Folger's instant coffee, because that's all my parents have in the house. I don't think it's too bad when mixed with some flavored coffee mate. (Have you ever had any of that? It'll turn almost any bad coffee good.)

I'll have to give that Cameron's Coffee a try.
 
I also only like home brewed/made coffee.

Though I've beento Colombia and I've had the reall thing over there, since the town is near acres of coffe plantations. It's pretty good coffe.
 
If you have leftover coffee (with no cream and or sugra natch) pour it on your neps once it's cold- a few folks I know including myself did it and it gave really good results ;)

I can't drink the stuff, makes me dizzy
 
If coffee is even just a little too weak, it'll taste like crap. So, if you still have that Kona, maybe try making it a little stronger.

I order coffee from a roaster in RI - http://www.newharvestcoffee.com/ - and recruit other people to combine an order because the place gives a 20% discount on orders of 12 lb or more and also because the shipping gets divided between more bags. I used to order Community coffee from New Orleans because that's what I liked in college. The other people who order with me all switched from things like Dunkin Donuts coffee.

We buy whole beans and grind them with hand-crank Zassenhaus grinders that I bought cheap on eBay years ago. Coffee is much better if ground right before brewing instead of weeks or months ahead of time. Some specialty shops have a few bags of ground coffee for sale and I wonder how long it sits on the shelf before finally selling. It could have been the greatest stuff ever when it arrived, but it'll be dreck a year later. Over time, everyone who orders with me has switched to whole beans like we did. It makes a huge difference, especially for those who take a while to get through a bag.

That place doesn't have Kona (or cat poop coffee either) but has a huge variety and we go from one to the next. I guess I prefer the African coffees, but I like trying different ones. I doubt I'd pay the extra for the rare types. We mix 1:3 regular to decaf, because I don't want too much caffeine, and use that blend to fill our wall-mount grinder. Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of choices in decaf. My wife wants more caffeine, so she grinds regular beans in our smaller grinder for a mid-day boost.

I generally go for medium to dark roasts, but not French roast, which tastes like the stuff scraped off a grill at the end of a holiday weekend. I avoid flavored coffee unless I'm getting a cup of coffee somewhere that has awful coffee. A splash of flavored coffee can cover the nastiness without adding too much ickiness.

edit - Holy crap theyellowdart, did you actually say "the only problem" is you don't have Dunkin Donuts down there? I'd gladly send all of them down to you. They are like a plague of locusts. They look for a successful, locally-owned bakery or coffeeshop and plunk a Dunkin Donuts across the street or next door. I hate them.
 
I prefer medium to dark roasts of Latin-American coffees. I personally find African coffees to have too earthy of a taste for me. If you like the lighter type bean you described above, you should try Gevalia coffee. Of the varieties I have tried from them, they have all been outstanding (except for the one that comes in the blue/purple box [I must interergect here. I could be blue or purple because I am colorblind, and can't really tell what it is.]) I'm pretty sure the nasty one is signature blend. Breakfast blend is out of this world.
 
I drink a Kona blend... enjoying some at this moment, there are some beans that come from the blue mountain in jamaca that are suppose to be exceptional..

but right now Kona/Kona blends are my fav.... plus i can find them for sale locally

I like to roll my own, good stuff....
Av
 
A geography professor who did much of his research in Jamaica told me 10X more Blue Mountain coffee is sold than is grown. That makes me skeptical of some of the elite coffees. My tastes change and my favorite used to be Huehuetenango (from Guatemala), but maybe that was because it's fun to say, at least while sober.
 
  • #10
edit - Holy crap theyellowdart, did you actually say "the only problem" is you don't have Dunkin Donuts down there? I'd gladly send all of them down to you. They are like a plague of locusts. They look for a successful, locally-owned bakery or coffeeshop and plunk a Dunkin Donuts across the street or next door. I hate them.

Haha, really? I never noticed that when we lived in NJ. I wouldn't be surprised, though. Every time I go back up there for a visit, there's another one opened somewhere else.

You can go ahead and send them down. We don't have enough of anything here!
 
  • #11
A geography professor who did much of his research in Jamaica told me 10X more Blue Mountain coffee is sold than is grown. That makes me skeptical of some of the elite coffees. My tastes change and my favorite used to be Huehuetenango (from Guatemala), but maybe that was because it's fun to say, at least while sober.

I wouldnt doubt that at all :0o:
Av
 
  • #12
Yes, I always do 2x what the bag says for each cup, no weak stuff. I usually use two heaping plastic picnic spoonfuls of ground bean per cup, so it probably really equals 3 1/2 -4 spoonfuls. I can still fall asleep halfway through a cup though.

I've got a little electric grinder (about 1/2 cup of beans per filling) and glass clamp container with a rubber seal to keep my ground beans in. Until you loosen the clamp you can't smell what's in the jar. The "clear" rubber seal has turned brown but it never touches the grounds - think of our guts! I have this funnel type thing that sits on your coffee cup. You put a coffee filter in it and the grounds and then nuke some water and filter out one cup.

We don't have any Dunkin Donuts around here but we have their coffee in the stores. Our donut place is called The Donut Connection or something like that. But seeing as I "never" get up before noon or leave the house before 2 pm, I've never been in one! :D

Cameron's distribution center is in Shakopee, MN (the next town over from mine) but it's in all the grocery stores I've been to in MN. So I don't know if they're regional or this is just one of many depots they have. Look for a black bag with a red medieval lion on it. I haven't dissected their bags but it looks like there's a coin or something shaped like one embedded in the front of the bag too.

I tried Cameron's "Intense French" and nearly puked, an instant dumper. I actually drank about 4 sips to see if it really was as bad as the first sip indicated. That was the most cigarette butt tasting of them all so I'd say to avoid that one, unless you like that - who does? Cameron's sells small bags of all their blends and flavors and individual beans for $1 that will make about 10 of my style cups (probably 20 then) so they're good to experiment with. The Highlander Grog is absolutely awesome (very sweet, rich & smooth even without sugar with sugar, look out!) but it's tolerable only in small occasional amounts. I drank a pound of just that once over a month and never wanted it again for a looooong time! I still buy the small bags of that when I see them but never a whole lot.
 
  • #13
If you use one of those single-cup deals, you should look into getting a cloth filter for it. I had one made from cotton or hemp or something and there was a real noticeable difference versus paper filters. And because they're reuseable, you never have to worry about not being able to make a cup because you're out of filters (or resort to folded up paper towels, gag.)
Now I want a cup of coffee.
~Joe
 
  • #14
That's cool, is it shaped like a regular filter or a bag? Where do you find them? Are they easy to clean out/do the grounds clog your sink?

I never tried using paper towels, or fabric softener sheets as a filter... Brawny Kona Snuggle Blend! :D
 
  • #15
Kona blend, should have been an instant give-a-way. Most companies that sell "Kona Blend" put just enough in to justify putting that on the label. There is also a company called "Kona Blend", there products contain no Kona whatsoever. Jamaican Blue Mountain, when it's done right is like tasting the perfect watermelon. Also after the hurricane season with Katrina, blue mountain coffee was all but wiped out. I'm the Master Roaster for beancentral.com so I may be a little biased when it comes ti commenting on other brands, but dunkin' has a pretty good cup. One thing to try with your Kona blend bags, is to add a pinch of salt to the grounds before brewing.
 
  • #17
Ha! I suppose you can trademark "anything", even a coffee that doesn't contain it's name sake! :D

Adough, since you're a coffee brewer guy what is wrong with those coffees (most I've tried) that taste foul like there's cigarette butts floating in it? Why do they taste like that? Is it the type of beans they use or roasting process or what? Like the new bag I bought tastes fine at first but then this aftertaste of sharp foulness seems to creep up out of nowhere and ruin it.

I've seen the Jamaican Blue Mountain bags of whole bean at Home Goods, that's a brand worth trying?

How come no stores sell 100% Kona and always Kona Blends? I'd probably be more apt to pay $20 a pound if I didn't have to tack another $8 shipping onto it as well.
 
  • #18
Find some people and put together an order from a place like Adough's. If I read the website correctly, shipping is free for orders over $50. The discount at the place I order from in RI doesn't kick in until the order is for 12 lb or more. It's a good deal, but it takes more effort to organize such a big order.
 
  • #19
Kona, and Blue mountain can be found. But, be prepared. Kona should start at $30 a pound. And JBM at it's cheapest be $40 per lb. Like many other things coffee's have grades, each plant may contain all three grades. Also, each plant on average produces one to two pounds per year. Every bean handpicked. As obvious as it may seem, it needs to be said, fresher is better. Get a grinder, you enjoy your coffee so much more. If you don't have a grinder, than most places are happy to grind it for you. Most grocer's even have a grinder in the aisle. There is nothing wrong with freezing your ground coffee either. Just like seeds beans don't like room temperature. If you do freeze your beans, don't allow them to "thaw" out on the counter. Pull out what you need and with haste put the remainder back into the freezer. Oxygen/air is another bad thing. Fresh coffee can't have an "vacuumed" looked. When roasted coffee de-gasses for hours and won't stop for up to 36 hours. I have nothing against folgers, or maxwell house, or starbucks. Although I'm not going to enjoy then myself, there is nothing wrong with people enjoying them. To each is own. As to coffee tasting like cigarette butts........keep your machine clean.
 
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