Coffee

I admit it, I'm a caffeine addict.  And I have been for years, even before Starbucks hit it big.  Matter of fact, I remember the original Stabucks at Pike Place Market in Seattle back in the late 70s; IIRC, they weren't selling coffee drinks back then.  And back then I probably wouldn't have liked it much (as their roasts exist now.)  I was drinking the Navy coffee that came in the 20 or 25 pound square cans with lots of creamer and sugar.

 

After I got out of the Navy and moved back to the Southwest I got hooked up with a group of friends who took their coffee much more seriously.  One guy roasted the beans for each pot using a manually operated roaster over a stove burner.  I didn't go that far, but I did roast my own beans for several years using a hot-air roaster and ground them fresh for each pot.  Then I got a real job and got married.

 

Time became more compressed, so I started buying roasted beans and grinding them in larger batches.  I've gotten lazier over the years, so now I buy ground coffee at Starbucks. 

 

Now, on to coffee makers.  I haven't knowingly drank percolator coffee since I got out of the Navy.  For a long time I used cone filters.  Then I got a vacuum pot from mid-century and my life was transformed.  It took a little more attention than the cone, but the brew is much better.  Sadly, that got broken during a move and I couldn't find another anywhere in Phoenix.  So I bought a Toshiba drip coffeemaker that ground the beans just before brewing and had a gold plated filter.  That lasted for years until something inside broke and couldn't be repaired - it had been repaired twice before, but this one was terminal and no parts were available.  While shopping for a new coffeemaker and subsisting on cone-brewed coffee I found the Starbucks Utopia (made by Bodum) and the Heavens sang hosannas.  I went through two of those over time and now that Bodum is no longer making them I went simple again and bought a Bodum Santos.  Back to mid-century technology, but it makes the best coffee!  That's for home, at work we have a three-burner Bunn drip brewer and go through at least two pots a day in a five-person office.  I drink one of those.

 

Now, back to my cup of Gold Coast.  Some other time I'll talk about the coffe cups and mugs I've gone through.