Archive for April, 2002

Posted on April 23, 2002 - by deCadmus

Happy Birthday, Will!

Happy birthday, Mr. Shakespeare.

Posted on April 2, 2002 - by deCadmus

It’s all in the details…

It wasn’t long ago that I waxed happily on the Whole Foods Market that’s recently made its debut in my neck of the woods. I still like the store. A lot. I do, however, wish they’d be a bit more mindful of their coffee roasting operation. This last weekend I picked up a few roasted samples, and was alarmed to find green [unroasted] coffee beans mixed in the roasted coffee bins. I’d expect a green encounter like this could end in tears, either from a puckerful cup, or — more likely — a damaged grinder.

And, while the nifty JavaMaster in-store coffee roaster has a ‘lectronic brain, it’s not perfect… their Allegro Blend was distinctly under-roasted [either that, or I missed a green bean that snuck in the pot] while their Moka-Java blend had quite a bit more of a roast than was really necessary. More to the point, it had more of a roast on it than I remember from my last trip.

And they still won’t sell me green coffee. [sigh]

Posted on April 1, 2002 - by deCadmus

The Return to Office Coffee

Sometimes you have no idea just how good you’ve got it… until you don’t have it anymore.

For the last many months I’ve had the unbidden luxury of working from home — some writing, some research, and a lot of coffee roasting — all while the post dotcom economy found its footing. What else is a web geek to do?

Last week I returned to the workaday world, in a workaday office… and workaday coffee. It wasn’t all that long ago that I wrote about office coffee, and the battle of the specialty juggernauts for market share of the corporate coffee pot. The office in which I work, however, hasn’t entered that particular fray.

The coffee that fuels the fevered imaginations of my companion developers is Ronoco, which, despite its arguably industrial aroma and chemical flavor profile, is not related to the slightly more well-known Ronco. It’s thin, it’s weak, stale, and otherwise devoid of any characteristic that could be considered pleasing. If you think about it, that’s actually quite an accomplishment.

Rather than ferret out how to make really bad coffee, however, I’m going to turn my attention to how to make really great coffee under really difficult circumstances… that is, I’m going to figure out how to make insanely great coffee in the office. And I’ll report my progress here.

‘Course, that means I’ve got to start with a truly terrific roasted coffee. And since I’ve got to be in the office in the morning, I’d better get to it…