Tag: coffee

Costa Rica Tarrazu Comes in K-Cup Pods Now!

Sena ordered some Costa Rica Tarrazu coffee in K-Cup pods. There are two varieties, a medium roast and a dark roast. Tarrazu coffee always reminds me of our time spent in Madison, Wisconsin years ago. There were so many fun things to do and interesting sights to see.

OK, so the dark roast is extra bold and is supposed to have lemon, red honey, and bright notes. The medium roast is mild-bodied and is supposed to have honey, baker’s chocolate, and bright notes.

I really don’t notice the different notes. They’re both very smooth and we enjoyed them. I can’t distinguish coffee notes, yet I can tell that shredded coconut has a consistency very much like cellophane. That’s why I feel so squeamish about swallowing it and seem like a cow chewing its cud—endlessly.

I wouldn’t know how to tell red honey from plain old honey. If the medium roast has baker’s chocolate notes, then they must be like the notes played on an imaginary chocolate piano.

It occurs to me that I could be wrong about this coffee being smooth. If the notes are supposed to be bright, then maybe it should be acidic, which is not smooth. This is because some coffee tasting experts say that smooth coffee is low in acid, although low acidity can make a coffee unexciting and boring.

I’m not bored at all by Tarrazu coffee. On the other hand, I can’t say that coffee has ever excited me. I’ve been stimulated by it, which is because of the caffeine, not the notes.

Most of the web references about coffee flavor lingo appear to be written by companies that sell coffee. There is a whole vocabulary about the subject. It’s similar to wine-tasting in which there are also notes and possibly chords.

We have a good supply of Tarrazu coffee pods. I imagine our palates will soon be educated enough to detect whole symphonies of notes resembling works by the 4 Bs: Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, and Bigfoot. If you detect beef jerky notes and hear loud knocks while drinking coffee, you should consider switching to Tarrazu.

A Short Review of Dixie Paper Coffee Cups

Sena bought some Dixie coffee cups the other day. They don’t contain polystyrene foam, which is what Styrofoam cups are made of. Dixie cups are made from paper with a polyethylene coating and contain 80% cellulose fiber by weight, according to the Dixie company website. On the other hand, many recycling centers won’t take paper cups because they have a coating on the inside of the cup to hold liquids and prevent leaks. So, recycling centers won’t take Styrofoam or Dixie cups. They both have to go to the landfill.

So, are Dixie cups more environmentally friendly or not?

I’m not sure. I know they transmit the heat of hot coffee to the outside of the cup. That means I have to double cup my coffee. I stick the hot coffee cup inside of another paper cup so that I can hold it without burning my fingers.

Dixie does make a “perfect touch” insulated paper cup which is made with air bubbles. I tossed the plastic package containing the cups in the garbage and didn’t find out until later that Dixie makes insulated cups.

The reviews on the web are generally positive and I couldn’t find any stores on the web that didn’t sell non-insulated cups. I found a few reviews advising caution about the insulation not being effective and that the cups could get too hot to handle. They’re also not recyclable at every center because they contain food residue.

And we found out that the coffee temperature gets to 160-180 degrees in the Dixie cup after brewing in the Keurig machine, which makes it comparable to the double wall glass mug. The difference is that I can hold the glass mug without fear of burning my fingers.

There are times when paper cups are handy. They’re great on picnics when you don’t want to use your fancy dishes. They’re also helpful for keeping your hands warm when you’re drinking coffee or hot chocolate outside in the brisk fall weather. But I would need gloves anyway.

Striking a Blow for Science with the Coffee Temperature Experiment!

We got our new thermometer the other day and did a coffee cup temperature test. It’s certified by the National Sanitation Foundation (NSF), but we’re not sure where it was manufactured. The instruction sheet looks like it was translated into English.

First, we measured the temperature of coffee in different cups. We measured the temperature of coffee in a double wall glass mug and compared it with the temperature of coffee in a stoneware mug. Stoneware is a type of ceramic.

Right after brewing, the coffee in the double wall glass mug was around 180 degrees. In the stoneware mug, the coffee temperature was around 160 degrees. After 5 minutes the temperature dropped by about 20 degrees in both mugs. Not a big surprise to learn that the double wall glass mug kept coffee hotter.

In fact, I previously noticed when I drank coffee from the stoneware mug last week, it was less hot right after brewing.

Sena wanted to test the Keurig machine to see if the preference setting for making coffee hotter actually worked. In fact, there was no difference in the coffee temperature in either the glass or the stoneware mug after setting the temperature higher.

We then tested the claim of the makers of our old Black & Decker coffee maker that preheating the carafe with hot water actually kept coffee hotter. We were a little surprised that it seemed to work for the stoneware mug, but not for the double wall glass mug.

Just in the interest of full disclosure, we used plain water for the last two experiments. We didn’t think getting buzzed out on coffee was a worthwhile sacrifice in the name of science.

So, the takeaways from this experiment:

  1. The preference setting for temperature adjustment on the Keurig may not be all it’s cracked up to be.
  2. The stoneware mug didn’t keep coffee as hot as the double wall glass mug in either the Keurig or the Black & Decker model.
  3. The stoneware mug seemed to stay hotter when we pre-warmed the carafe on the Black & Decker coffee maker by filling it with hot water before brewing. Be sure you empty out the hot water first.

If you don’t mind sacrificing hot temperature for looks, then go with stoneware mugs. I guess some male reviewers said things like, “Now there’s a man’s coffee mug! I guess maybe that’s because they’re broader than they are tall—I mean the mugs, not the men (although I don’t know if they sent photos of themselves).

By the way, extraterrestrials are not intimidated by a thermometer.

Morning Brew

We tried out our new double wall glass mugs yesterday and I think the coffee stays hot longer in the new cup. Sena is a little doubtful. She ordered a thermometer and we’ll test it more scientifically.

The mugs are lighter than I thought they would be. They don’t get hot on the outside so I can safely set it in my lap while we’re sitting out in the sun room in the morning.

The ceramic mug transmits a little too much heat for that, at least initially. I went through the roof once and got picked up by a passing UFO. I offered the driver a sip and it just said, “You’re not experimenting on me!” They’re a little suspicious.

Sena also got a little K-pod drawer which neatly holds most of our pods. The whole setup makes morning brew really quick and easy.

I like easy.

Our New Coffee Center!

We got our new double wall glass mugs yesterday for our Keurig coffee maker, along with more K-pods. We’ll keep the K-pods in a brand-new snazzy drawer that sits on the counter under the Black and Decker coffee maker.

Now we’ll see whether our coffee stays hot longer. Sena’s also planning to get a thermometer to check this.

Sena got a great deal on the double-wall glass mugs, at just a fraction of the list price.

I can’t remember whether the Artificial Intelligence robot came with the mugs or the coffee pot.

Press And Hold on The Keurig Coffee Maker

We got our new coffee maker. It’s a Keurig K-Supreme Plus, and it’s as fancy as the name sounds. It’s compact enough to save room for our other coffee maker, a Black & Decker, a model with a carafe and which you have to press and hold the “On” button to start the cleaning mode.

It has options for making your coffee stronger and hotter and you can save your choices.

You can save 3 favorites. You have to press and hold the “Favorite” button until you see the word “saved” in the little window.

I emphasize the “press and hold” because if you don’t strictly obey the rule, you can wind up thinking your brand new appliance is defective.

It does make the coffee hotter. But I think Sena will be looking into other options for cups which will keep the brew hotter for a longer time.

The Keurig coffee makers are normally pricey but Sena got a bargain. And there is nothing wrong with the press and hold maneuver when it comes to your wallet—as in hold it shut.

Again, Sena Returns Another New Coffee Maker!

Sena is returning yet another new coffee maker. It’s a Keurig K Supreme. The problem? The coffee doesn’t stay hot enough after brewing.

What’s the deal?

I think part of it is that we might need to get different coffee cups. On the other hand, we never seemed to notice our coffee cooling off too fast before-except with the current Black and Decker with a carafe that we’re trying to sort of replace with a K type pod coffee maker.

We used to have the original Keurig years ago. I don’t remember that there was ever a problem with the coffee not staying hot.

When I was a resident, I used to have a little Mr. Coffee I kept in my office for when I was on call. It got a lot of use. And it got really dirty. Well, you know, work… I never noticed a problem with the coffee temperature, though.

Why is the temperature of the coffee an issue now? Why are there coffee makers that allow you to set the temperature of the brew? There are 3 settings on some models, one of which Sena has just ordered.

That’s right. This is trial number 3. The MeCity coffee maker had a pod cartridge that made it difficult to remove the pod after brewing. If you don’t have fingernails, you pretty much have to use a tool to catch the pod edge to lift it out. Back to the store.

The Keurig K Supreme was discouraging because the coffee was tepid within a few sips after brewing. Back to the store.

Isn’t this way too much gassing about coffee makers?

I don’t trust customer reviews much. On the other hand, Sena saw one review where the hacked off guy wrote a one liner in all caps about one model of Keurig coffee maker: “WILL NOT WORK WITH ARC FAULT CIRCUIT INTERRUPTERS!” I think there was an expletive deleted in that one.

We actually had that problem in one of the homes we owned years ago. There was only one option—buy a new house (just kidding).

And a previous coffee maker we had got zapped during the derecho here a few years ago. The numbers on the clock faded and it started to gain time. It’s not like we needed to use the clock. I had retired and didn’t need to set it to brew in the morning any more. So, we got a new one.

That’s when all the trouble started. Does any manufacturer make a decent coffee maker nowadays?

Where will this saga end? I don’t think we’ll return the next Keurig model Sena ordered—unless it doesn’t work at all or blows up.

We might have to start thinking about the cups we use. I guess there are different opinions about ceramic vs glass vs whatever kind of cups. Some hold heat better than others, you shouldn’t fill a cup all the way to the top because your coffee could lose heat faster, mug thickness matters damn it! Extraterrestrials are messing with heat transfer physics, blah, blah.

Should we just switch to iced coffee?

A New Coffee Maker!

Sena got a new coffee maker. It’s a Mecity single serve which uses coffee pods like a Keurig but doesn’t cost an arm and leg. I don’t know why it’s called “Mecity.” It gets good reviews.

She also got a good deal on 100 coffee pods. One of them is a mystery. It’s got a question mark on it so we won’t know what flavor it is until we load and brew it.

It’s a lot more compact than our other coffee maker. It’s easy to use. Fill it with water, load a pod and press a button for 6, 8, or 10 oz cup. You’re good to go in seconds.

We made hot chocolate with it and we notice it makes a hotter drink than our other pot.

If it blows up, we’ll let you know.

Costa Rica Tarrazu Coffee Notes

Sena bought a bag of ground Costa Rica Tarrazu coffee the other day. It brings back memories. We savored it along with some piano music from George Winston, may he rest in peace.

You can gas about coffees a lot. You can call Tarrazu a thing which has a certain complexity of notes, a balanced flavor, a spicy character and whatnot. I guess appraising coffee can be similar to judging wines. I don’t like wine and know nothing about it. I don’t know much about coffee, either.

But there’s a coffee connoisseur who made a YouTube video evaluating the Tarrazu we have. He said it has “coffee notes.” I should hope so. He gave it a so-so rating, 6.1. I guess there’s a 10-point rating scale. I think he takes subtle sarcasm to a new level. He had some kind of fancy coffee filter I’ve never seen before. He compared Tarrazu to coffee you get from Denny’s restaurant—as though Denny’s is a highbrow establishment. He also said it has chocolate notes. I actually noticed that years ago.

We first tasted Tarrazu at the World Market in Madison, Wisconsin many years ago. The drive from Iowa City to Madison was a pleasure. We took the more scenic route, which was Highway 151. Just in case you read this and make the trip yourself, I’ll say this: what is scenic to one is boring to another.

I remember we sampled Tarrazu from those little white Styrofoam cups in the World Market store. It was the smoothest coffee we ever tasted. We were hooked and bought a bag.

There’s a lot to do in Madison, which is not to say there’s not much to do in Iowa City. There’s just more of everything in Madison. Every day there was some new attraction to explore. Tarrazu was also a new experience.

We had a lot of fun in Madison. We went up to Wisconsin Dells and darn near froze to death on an open boat ride in the early fall. Part of the “fun” of the ride was mainly for the driver, I think. He would rev the boat at rocket speed and splash us with water, which could have had a thin skin of ice notes over it, judging from the shock. We saw the House on the Rock in Spring Green. We relaxed at the Sundara spa. We rode the horse-drawn wagon on the Lost Canyon tour and still have a deck of playing cards from the gift shop.

We’ve bought Tarrazu a couple of times since our adventure in Madison and found that, somehow, the flavor wasn’t quite as bright, not as smooth. On one bag, the name was spelled “Terrazu” rather than “Tarrazu. Sure, it had “coffee notes,” but not the chocolate notes. And it didn’t evoke memories of Wisconsin.

Finally, getting back to the Tarrazu we have now. The taste is miraculous, just like it was so many years ago. It takes me back to the Styrofoam cups at World Market, the speedboat in the frigid water, the Sundara bedsheets stained by previous guests with mud notes from the spa, the Infinity Room in Spring Green, cheese curds and chili.

Those are my Tarrazu notes.

First Time for Iced Coffee!

Sena brought home a carton of iced coffee this afternoon. This is our first time trying it. It’s a vanilla flavor brew. It’s pretty good! I always thought coffee had to be hot to be good. And I’ve always taken it black. We both like the vanilla flavor.

A 2012 article on The Daily Meal says New Yorkers drink the most iced coffee. It’s been growing in popularity since 2010.