This month I didn’t really go far afield for my coffee. I hope you all understand; it’s been freakishly cold here in our corner of America, and my car has barely been able to start a few mornings. As well, it’s been busy season at the bookstore where I work. We supply used textbooks to students for low prices, so we have been swamped as the new academic semester began, meaning some long, or at least stressful and busy days for me. I’ve been lucky to have enough energy to get to work and back, let alone go on much of a bean-related trip! I have plans to venture west to Carlisle and east to Reading, and hopefully into parts unknown in the next two months as the days get longer, if not actually much warmer.
For now, I’m just going to let you know about a new kind of coffee that I found at a local shopping center purely by accident, which has become my go-to coffee for those days when I’m afraid to venture outdoors! It’s called Peet’s Coffee, and it hails from Berkeley, California. A pretty appropriate source if you ask me. After all, coffeehouse culture has always been the epicenter of social change, and if there’s one thing that Berkeley is famous for, it’s activism.
As usual, when I’m trying a new coffee, I get the house blend first. I think that gives a very good first impression of what the coffee is “about”; what it’s makers are trying going for in terms of style. I took it as a very good sign that the exact date of the roasting of the beans that went into that particular batch is noted at the bottom of the package. Shows a lot of class. What I get from this house blend is something that’s not quite as buttery and smooth as, say, Eight O’ Clock coffee (a family favorite that I’ll talk about another time), but certainly not as bold or bitter as Seattle’s Best. It’s a good, mid-range, not-too-earthy flavor that goes very well with fresh cream (which cuts down on a bit of acidity and lets the full flavor really come out.
Well, I hope that was informative and showed you a nice potential drink to keep you warm and satisfied on those long winter mornings when a trip to get coffee feels like commuting to work! See you in February with some more updates.
My new friend.
The Coffeehouse Journey 