Category: coffee

Posted in coffee

Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii

Posted on by William Douthwaite

Driving through Anastasia Island on my way to a cookie delivery, a fluttering banner caught my eye: Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii.

I thought, “Really? Out here on the east coast of Florida?”

I made a mental note of other stores nearby before I obeyed the GPS directions to my delivery destination. Check it out on my way home? Absolutely.

When I pulled in, there were no other cars but the sign announced “Open” and I walked in.

All three women behind the counter welcomed me. I cut straight to the chase. I explained that I had been to a coffee farm in Kona on the big island eighteen months ago. They had a 10% Kona blend ready to go, but could make a French press 100% Kona for me. I had a chance to chat while they prepared a medium for me.

I asked, “How long have you been open?”

“About a week.”

The manager (?) explained that she used to live on Maui, behind the original Bad Ass Coffee shop. Her home was destroyed, and after two years in FEMA housing, she decided to move to the mainland with her husband and daughter. When a new franchise opened in St. Augustine Beach, she knew she was in the right place. There are around forty franchises on the mainland.

She showed me a wall of coffees for sale, including the most expensive Peaberry Kona coffee. But there was another more expensive variety on the shelf called Typica. “What’s that?” I asked.

She admitted, “I don’t know.”

So I did a little research. It’s the original variety brought to Hawaii in the 1830s, thriving on the volcanic hillsides. I’m sure it’s delicious, but at $70 for twelve ounces, I’m probably not going to find out very soon.

Anyway, my 100% Kona was delicious, and I’ll definitely be back with the wife. How nice to find an alternative to S’Bux and Dunkin.

Posted in coffee, Life, waiting

Another impressive coffee machine

Posted on by William Douthwaite

Every time I take my car in the service at the dealer, they’ve upped their coffee game. Here’s a picture of their latest machine featuring espresso, cappuccino, latte, and mocha. Plus, a couple of things I’ve never seen before: a vanilla steamer and a chocolate shot. It served up a delicious latte in less than thirty seconds. Nicely done!

I’ve written about coffee machines before. Waiting areas have come a long way from the days of a single glass carafe one quarter full of burnt-tasting day-old coffee.

Which on this day was good because I had to wait about 2-1/2 hours for some simple service on my car. I had an appointment and the service bay didn’t look busy, but it too them a while before they got around to my oil change and tire rotation. Maybe it was because this was the car’s first service, so it was free.

But I can’t complain too much. I took advantage of the free snacks, including cookies, chips, crackers, granola bars, and fruit. No I didn’t eat all of those. I was polite. I only took one bag of popcorn chips to munch on while watching some home improvement TV episodes.

Eight service advisors were busy on computers. They received service customers, called about insurance, took payment for completed work, and discussed repair options. I suppose snacks and beverages takes the edge off having to get work done, which always costs more than you expect.

Posted in coffee, Travel

Coffee farms and roasters

Posted on by William Douthwaite

We took a morning trip to Mountain Thunder coffee roasters, just up the road from the house we were staying at on the big island of Hawaii. It’s on a hillside in the middle of the Kona coffee belt on the western side of Mauna Loa.

When we arrived we were invited to try samples of the different roasts, including light, French, espresso, and a blend of light and espresso they called “black and tan.” Before our coffee education, we were just glad to drink coffee. Later, we’d understand the different roasts and flavors of each. In other words, we were just steps away from becoming coffee snobs.

The free tour explained the whole process, from farm to brew. This roaster bought coffee beans from many nearby growers, all of whom harvested by hand. We got to see where the beans were sorted, rinsed and shelled, roasted, and finally packed for sale. We learned a lot.

  • Light roast has more caffeine than dark, which is roasted hotter and longer.
  • Most coffee beans grow two to a pod. The pods which only have one bean are called “peaberry.” The $70 per pound price of peaberry meant no free samples of that roast. But we bought dark chocolate covered peaberry beans in the gift shop. A nice caffeine boost without drinking a cup of coffee.
  • Kona blends (10%) are more common and affordable than 100% Kona coffee. the Starbucks in the Honolulu airport served Kona coffee.
  • Other regions (Ka’u, Puna, and Hamakua) boasted about their superior beans and roasts. We enjoyed the coffee in those places, too. We’re not that snobby.

I looked but never found a place to try a cup of peaberry coffee. I just wanted to find out if I could taste the difference. After the tour, I tried the samples again and did taste a big difference between light and espresso roasts.

This was one of our must-do activities in Hawaii. We could have spent a whole day visiting the coffee shops and shacks that lined the roads around the island. That would be a very good day!

Posted in coffee

A luxury or a necessity?

Posted on by William Douthwaite

A recent WordPress daily prompt asked, “What is one luxury you can’t live without?”

Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash

When there’s a hurricane and the power is out for a few days, you learn what you can live without. Without electricity, there’s only candles after sunset, no wifi or cellular service, no streaming, no ice for drinks, no air conditioning or fans, no hot water for a shower. Everything is closed, so there’s nowhere to go.

I can get along with non-perishable food for a few days. I don’t mind drinking bottled water on mission trips. But the first question my wife and I ask when a storm knocks out the power is, “How are we going to make coffee in the morning?” If there’s no power to work the coffeemaker, I can boil water over a propane burner for some pour-over or instant coffee. I guess coffee is the luxury I wouldn’t want to live without.

A close second would be ice. Drinks pulled out of an ice-filled cooler or poured over ice into a glass are just so good. It doesn’t have to be a fancy beverage. Tap water over ice is delicious after yard work on a hot day.

It’s easy to forget how many luxuries we enjoy. I’m grateful for havingso much more than life’s necessities of food, water, shelter, and clothing.

Posted in coffee

A surprisingly good cup of coffee

Posted on by William Douthwaite

The service adviser said, “It’s going to be about three to four hours.” The look on my face must have prompted her to add, “Yeah, they have to take the whole dashboard off to get to the wiring.”

I had expected to wait a couple of hours for the recall service to be done on my van. Double that? Good thing I brought something to do. And since it was early, maybe the coffee would be good.

Typically, I’d find a few pump thermoses in the beverage area. That’s fine, as long as the coffee is hot and fresh. A few hours from now it would be old and lukewarm. Once in a while, the dealership will install a Keurig coffee maker. Unfortunately, they’ll also buy the cheapest pods they can find, resulting in so-so brew.

But today I saw a coffee machine I’ve never seen before. It’s a Selectbrew coffee system, featuring Folgers coffee. Not a brand I reach for, but today I’ll give it a shot. I placed my cup, pushed the “dark roast bold” (of course) and within five seconds I had a strong, freshly brewed cup of coffee. It smelled and tasted wonderful. Later on, I tried the decaf variety, and it was just as tasty.

I know, I should probably be more concerned about the service and costs of car repair. But we’ve been coming to this dealership for decades and they’ve always done a great job at a reasonable price. I’ve had better coffee at coffee shops. But they didn’t have a clue about how to fix my car. Lol.

Posted in coffee

A much-needed shot

Posted on by William Douthwaite

Sometimes a shot of espresso is the perfect medicine for a nagging headache. After all, over the counter migraine remedies contain acetaminophen, aspirin, and caffeine. Let’s cut to the chase and dig out the espresso maker.

A few years ago I bought a small kitchen counter deLonghi espresso maker. It works well, but I had been decaffeinating, so it’s been unused on a shelf for a while. The last time I put on my barista hat, I learned that some pretty nasty stuff comes out of an espresso maker fresh out of hibernation. So I ran vinegar and then water through until it came out smelling like… nothing.

I found a can of Cafe Bustelo on the shelf, my measurer/tamper, and a couple of espresso cups in the kitchen cabinet. I switched on the machine, the green light came on after about ninety seconds and the machine began pressing hot water through the scoop of ground coffee. A dark brown dribble began filling the cups with a nice creme rising to the surface. It smelled and tasted wonderful. And, along with a little Tylenol sent the migraine packing. Mission accomplished.

Once it’s out on the counter, the machine calls out, “Use me!” So I’ve been making espresso to accompany dessert and pump up my morning cup of coffee. It has an arm with which I could steam milk, but I haven’t tried that yet. But I should. A latte must be a cure for something.

Posted in coffee, Travel

Coffee and hot chocolate

Posted on by William Douthwaite

“The espresso machine is having problems today.”

There’s a sentence you don’t want to hear at a coffee shop.

After a cool day trips with a granddaughter, we stopped at Rosalind’s in downtown Garland, TX for an afternoon snack. The girls wanted hot chocolate. I chose a double shot of espresso.

The place was crowded. The shop has recently been remodeled and expanded. Most of the tables were filled with people on laptop computers. The open table we found was right in the middle of it all.

My granddaughter picked out a chocolate chip cookie, and went sat down to wait for our drinks.

The wait was longer than I expected, but finally a barista called my name. As I walked away with two cups, I heard my name again. When I returned to the pick-up counter, the barista whispered, “I’m sorry, but the espresso machine is having problems today.” Uh-oh. No ones to hear that at a coffee shop. I said, “That’s OK, I’ll just have a small coffee.

The hot chocolate was better than expected, too. Topped with frothed milk, it left a great mustache on the drinker’s top lip. My coffee was delicious. I should have asked where they get their beans.

The chocolate chip cookie disappeared in record time, we enjoyed our drinks, and played a table top hook-the-ring game.

When we returned the next day with another granddaughter, we were glad to learn that the espresso machine was up and running,

Garland’s little downtown area looks better every time we come. Businesses have remodeled and reopened shops and street parking is usually full. It’s a cool place to hang out. The population here is diverse. Not many cowboys, but lots of Americans from India, Asia, and Mexico.

Posted in coffee, Life

Fewer seats, more customers

Posted on by William Douthwaite

After I dropped off my dog at the groomer, I drove by my favorite Starbucks to see if they had re-opened. The store had been closed for remodeling, and the half-full parking lot was a welcome sight. With journal and pen in hand, I looked forward to an hour of coffee, eavesdropping, observation, thinking up story ideas, and doodling.

I actually had two journals with me. The one was just about full with just two blank pages left. The other was freshly unwrapped without a single mark on the pages. I love new journal day! I remember my mom telling me how much she loved cracking open a new notebook, feeling the smooth pages, and anticipating the words and images that would soon fill them. I know exactly how she felt.

Anyway, when I stepped into the redone coffee shop, I noticed a lack of seats. Half of the store was set aside for the baristas. The mobile order pickup area was expansive. One long table with chairs on each side filled the coffee-drinkers’ side. At each end was a table surrounded by a few chairs. A few scattered customers essentially filled the room. There was no place to sit, unless I was comfortable sitting side-by-side with purple-haired macchiato-drinking woman chatting on her phone.

I found a spot to sit outside at one of the ten patio tables. While there, I wondered, “Why did they get rid of so much indoor seating?” I put on my franchise-owner’s hat and came up with a few ideas.

  • Since it was right off the interstate, a lot of this location’s business was drive-thru and mobile orders. More room for more baristas will keep up with demand.
  • Every time I’ve been there, homeless were camped out, nursing a tall coffee for hours. Students occupied tables with laptops and textbooks for hours. Interviewers met with job applicant after job applicant. Fewer seats moves more customers through the store.
  • It was a corporate decision. This is what we want our stores to look like. We’ve never been to your store, but the data says this is the way to go. Live with it.
  • We want people to moan and groan about the change. There is no bad publicity, right? Let’s give the bloggers something to rant about. You have a problem with this? Let’s talk about it over coffee.

By the time I left, the parking lot was full, the mobile order counter was full, and the drive thru line was out to the street. Someone knows what they are doing.

Posted in coffee, Moments of grace

Surprisingly good coffee

Posted on by William Douthwaite

Since my appointment was at four in the afternoon, I didn’t expect to find any drinkable coffee in the waiting area at the dealer where I waited for an oil change and tire rotation. By that time, whatever was in the big pump carafe would be a lukewarm eight-hour old pot of weak brown liquid undeserving of the name “coffee.”

Boy, was I wrong. And I was pleasantly surprised to see a brand new commercial grade Keurig brewer on the counter next to paper cups, creamer, sugar, and a carousel of regular and decaf K-cups. Impressive. It was plumbed so you never had to fill the reservoir with water. A really cool color touch screen let you pick the size and strength of your coffee. I looked around to check and make sure I was in the right place. Yep. Same old uncomfortable chairs. Some of the same magazines and books. Same toys in the corner for kids.

I know I shouldn’t choose my auto mechanic based on the coffee provided in the waiting room. In the same light, you shouldn’t pick a church, a doctor, a hotel, or an airline for the coffee they serve. But when the coffee is good, it makes a difference when you’ll be waiting for a while.