Coffee Lovers

[JOYCEfromNS]

You get more of what you allow and less of what you don't.

There's a song there somewhere outside of Mr. Jimmy / Jagger&Richards

[ducktrapper]

There's a song there somewhere outside of Mr. Jimmy / Jagger&Richards

Heh. Maybe. I heard it first when it came to child rearing. One of the first rules was no pooping in the street.  I wonder when we lost track of that one.

[StringPicker6]

Pooping in the street sounds like a David Bowie/ Mick Jagger collaboration song.

[ducktrapper]

Pooping in the street sounds like a David Bowie/ Mick Jagger collaboration song.

I wonder what we could do replacing any song with dancing in it with pooping.

The Beatles, I'm happy just to poop with you.

[StringPicker6]

That's a slippery and smelly slope...

[Silence Dogood]

Wow, from coffee to pooping in the streets!  What a thread!
 

When I was in California last (about ten years ago) I was struck by the amount of homeless people I saw.  I live in a Texas suburb and rarely see any homeless, so I was shocked.  It must be a lot worse now than what I saw. 

On a music-related podcast recently I heard a musician talking about his neighborhood (somewhere around LA). He was walking his young son to school and someone was openly defecating on the street, and apparently lashed out at the father and son for noticing.  Absolute madness. This fellow was shocked and heartbroken because he loves this neighborhood and doesn't want to leave, but he said he would be leaving. He probably already has by now. Sad.

[ducktrapper]

Wow, from coffee to pooping in the streets!  What a thread!
 

When I was in California last (about ten years ago) I was struck by the amount of homeless people I saw.  I live in a Texas suburb and rarely see any homeless, so I was shocked.  It must be a lot worse now than what I saw. 

On a music-related podcast recently I heard a musician talking about his neighborhood (somewhere around LA). He was walking his young son to school and someone was openly defecating on the street, and apparently lashed out at the father and son for noticing.  Absolute madness. This fellow was shocked and heartbroken because he loves this neighborhood and doesn't want to leave, but he said he would be leaving. He probably already has by now. Sad.

https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/culture-of-transgression

Well, like guitar strings, there's only so much you can say about coffee. The decline of civilization, however, can take up volumes. I don't believe much of it is actual homelessness in the original sense of the word. It's more like a big camp out for drug addicts and other unfortunates with mental illness. Sad state of affairs.

[Riverbend]

We were buying our coffee beans from a small local roaster for a few years. Really nice young couple trying to make a go of it, and they had some great coffee and it was ethically sourced through Fair Trade organizations. It was getting really expensive, and when it hit $16 for 12 oz. we started looking for alternatives. Sam's Club had 40 oz. bags of Bigby's for $16 that was actually certified as Fair Trade, and that was actually very good, so that filled our pot for about a year. And as things go with big stores like SC, the brand disappeared. We picked up a bag of Starbucks Medium Roast (40oz, $21) and I'm enjoying it. My wife recently came down with Lyme Disease from a tick bite, and while she is pretty much symptom free after a round of antibiotics, she has suddenly lost her taste for coffee.

[Silence Dogood]

I like the whole local roaster thing, and there are some in my area.  There is a coffee shop in one of the neighboring towns where the guy does all of it in-house. His coffee is good, but that stuff's too rich for my everyday use.  I like an old-school cup of medium roast in the AM with a splash of whole milk.  I'm not a very sophisticated coffee drinker, I suppose.  Now and again I'll go down to this fellow's shop and meet someone for a cup and one of the delicious pastries they make.  All that stuff is also super expensive and my parsimony has increased with age as well. 

I went back to the market this week in need of more coffee.  This time I left with not one but two bags of Tim Horton's.  I'm a new fan.  The lower price is what grabbed me originally, but it's the taste that made me go back for more.  And all the while I have this sneaking suspicion that the low price is a tactic they are using to break into this new market, and once firmly entrenched, we will likely see the prices climb.  C'est la vie, etc. 

[Silence Dogood]

Thought I'd bump this up on this cold morning as I drink my cup of Tim Horton's in the quiet...

I'm still on the Tim Horton's medium roast and really enjoying it.  I bought some of their dark roast the other day.  It's pretty good with a shot of whole cream in it, but I find that most dark roasts have a sort of stale taste to me.  Maybe it's different when they are freshly-roasted, but all the stuff I buy is off the shelf and has sat there for who knows how long. 

Here is something strange: I used to drink coffee all day long, but it just doesn't taste good all day long to me anymore.  In fact, most days of the week I have one big cup on my way to work.  It tastes great and hits the spot perfectly.  On the weekends when I've got more time and I'm at home, I'll sometimes brew up a second cup and rarely can finish it.  It just seems like I became a one-cup coffee-drinker at some  point.  There are times when I get home from work and brew up a cup and it's pretty great too.  All said, I'm glad to be off the all-day coffee habit.  Seems like it made my morning cup even better. 

Do you all have Dutch Bros where you live?  They are popping up in our area and I've been there a few times.  Their specialty seems to be overly sugared-up blended drinks.  My son has brought me home a drink from there a few times.  They're hard for me to finish since they are so sweet.  Just give me some decent black coffee with a shot of cream or whole milk and I'm happy!
 

[StringPicker6]

I love black coffee. Someone once referred to it as cowboy coffee, and that phrase has stuck with me.

[Silence Dogood]

I love black coffee. Someone once referred to it as cowboy coffee, and that phrase has stuck with me.

I always think of "cowboy coffee" as black coffee brewed up in an old-school percolator. 

[B0WIE]

They have Dutch Bros out here in AZ. I know my brother likes it but I can't really enjoy coffee shop coffee Usually too acidic for me.

Lately, we get Lavaza because Costco has 2 lbs for $14 and it's a pretty nice coffee. Not like my old fave Kicking Horse but the horse got too expensive for me. So many of my purchasing habits changed during the pandemic.

[B0WIE]

I love black coffee. Someone once referred to it as cowboy coffee, and that phrase has stuck with me.

Black is best. It's the flavor and aroma of the coffee itself that stimulates me more than anything and I don't like that to be hidden by "stuff". That said, if I'm drinking coffee at night to get a project done, I'll take a little milk in it as my stomach doesn't like coffee at night.

[mike in lytle]

Not like my old fave Kicking Horse but the horse got too expensive for me. So many of my purchasing habits changed during the pandemic.

Our HEB has one side of an aisle for about 60 feet of nothing but coffee.
They have Kicking Horse, which of course I did not know existed, cause I go straight for the Folgers or the HEB equivalent. If I wanted to experiment, I can get lot's of different kinds, many of which have been mentioned here. But I need to experiment about as much as I need a non-Larrivee guitar.
I use a splash of milk in a 16 ounce tumbler of coffee, though I did go through a phase this holiday season... adding cream, milk, lots of sugar and pancake syrup. Had lots of energy for about 5 hours.
Mike

[Silence Dogood]

They have Dutch Bros out here in AZ. I know my brother likes it but I can't really enjoy coffee shop coffee Usually too acidic for me.

Lately, we get Lavaza because Costco has 2 lbs for $14 and it's a pretty nice coffee. Not like my old fave Kicking Horse but the horse got too expensive for me. So many of my purchasing habits changed during the pandemic.

It wasn't the pandemic that changed my purchasing habits, but for me it's just getting older.  It bothers me (a lot) to pay $5 for a cup of coffee, especially one of those fancy ones that leaves a bitter taste in my mouth due to excess sugar.  Nine out of ten times, I'd rather drink coffee at home, eat at home, etc.  It's funny, my wife and I were just talking about stuff like this last night, how when we were younger it was almost like a punishment to eat at home, while going out was so much fun. These days I don't seem to want to get ready and go out.  Not only too much money but too much trouble most times.  I see now why it's the 18-35 demographic that mostly gets marketed to.  I'm out of that age range and can't be sold things or experiences nearly as easily. 

[247hoopsfan]

I just enjoyed a few cups of black coffee while playing my D09 this morning. My go to is San Francisco Bay French Roast from Costco. I just picked up 3lb bags for $12.99, normally $17.99.  It's really good if you like dark roast. They are a local Bay Area roaster.
One of my best friends opened a coffee shop about 10 years ago in the Sierra Foothills. It's a tough business. You have to depend on high school and college age kids for affordable help, and California keeps raising the minimum wage which is killing small business. In the last couple years he got into roasting his own beans, and would like to sell his business and just sell beans. 
He comes down to get his pickup truckload 50 lb sacks of beans in the Bay Area a few times a year. He always comes by and bring a few 12 oz bags of his roasted beans.  It's good, but I prefer the SF Bay from Costco.

[B0WIE]

It wasn't the pandemic that changed my purchasing habits, but for me it's just getting older.  It bothers me (a lot) to pay $5 for a cup of coffee, especially one of those fancy ones that leaves a bitter taste in my mouth due to excess sugar.  Nine out of ten times, I'd rather drink coffee at home, eat at home, etc.  It's funny, my wife and I were just talking about stuff like this last night, how when we were younger it was almost like a punishment to eat at home, while going out was so much fun. These days I don't seem to want to get ready and go out.  Not only too much money but too much trouble most times.  I see now why it's the 18-35 demographic that mostly gets marketed to.  I'm out of that age range and can't be sold things or experiences nearly as easily. 

I hear you. I've always been frugal (or as my wife says, "cheap") but I'd rather have a NICE coffee at home that I actually enjoy and keep the extra $1,000 a year that I would have spent going to a coffee shop every morning. No disrespect to those who do it to get out. I totally get that.

The only way I can afford my nice guitars is by making sacrifices and shopping carefully. All my neighbors have cool cars. I'd much rather have my guitars than a car that looks great while sitting in traffic.

[StringPicker6]

I believe that a person should be able to sit down and slowly savor and enjoy a coffee. I shake my head in sadness when I see someone blasting around with a giant $10 to-go coffee cup in their hands.  Is that really having a coffee, or is it self medication of caffeine to fuel a maddeningly chaotic lifestyle?

[Silence Dogood]

I believe that a person should be able to sit down and slowly savor and enjoy a coffee. I shake my head in sadness when I see someone blasting around with a giant $10 to-go coffee cup in their hands.  Is that really having a coffee, or is it self medication of caffeine to fuel a maddeningly chaotic lifestyle?

It seems like sometimes the coffee cup is more of an accessory than anything else.