Please Understand This Blog Is Not Just About Coffee. And for Today: How Cold-Brewed Coffee Changed My Life

I figured that I’d go ahead and let you in on some information while I still have coffee on the brain. It involves a coffee press, 1/2 cup of coffee grinds and 4 cups of room temperature, purified water.   Steep for 3 to 12 hours and you end up with the most flavorful cold coffee that has ever danced on your mouth’s taste buds.  (The taste is most similar to a smooth liquid dark chocolate….think 60% cocoa, not milk chocolate, with a hint of coffee essence.)

Here’s where I passionately rant: The cold brewing process does everything you could possibly want! It is green since it avoids virtually any need for electricity. What’s more, the process extracts both the caffeine and the best, richest aromas of the coffee, while leaving the burnt flavors that often occur from using cheap coffee makers possessing poor temperature regulation capabilities. Obviously it is a win, win!

For those of you that prefer a more structured outline, please see below.

You will need:

• 1 French Press
• 1/2 cup of your favorite coffee grounds (This makes a darker, richer batch of cold brew. Add less grounds if you prefer weaker coffee and of course, the fresher the grounds the better the taste.)
• 4 cups of water
• Feel free to add soy or cow milk, and  cane sugar, Stevia or Splenda

The Effort:

Measure a 1/2 cup of coffee and pour into the French press. Add  four cups of room-temperature water (bottled water or filtered water will taste best). Stir the mixture until it is even and there are no lumps. Add the lid of the French Press back onto the top of the container.

The mixture can sit up to 12 hours, which is perfect if you like to start your day with minimal effort. Although, I do find that 3-5 hours is plenty. (I can be impatient too.) Let me know what you think!

Starbucks VIA: Life Changing Instant Coffee Or Overpriced Sanka?

It appears that Starbucks is at it again. When they aren’t looking to expand onto every corner location in the United States, the company spends its spare time looking at ways to repackage and position age-old products (coffee, instant coffee, coffee cups, doughnuts, etc.)  in a manner which convinces consumers that maybe, just maybe the the new and improved item is worth the 200% mark-up rate. And, with this in mind, I approached VIA, Starbucks’ new instant coffee product, with serious skepticism.

Let me just start off by saying that I am not a novice when it comes to instant coffee. In fact, instant coffee is fairly common internationally and of course, I did have a southern grandma that gave me Sanka kickbacks before sending me back to my parent’s house as a child. However, instant coffee is fairly cheap, and when taking into account that Starblah’s is charging roughly $.82 cents per packet/cup of instant coffee, a cup of coffee that doesn’t yet factor in water, overhead, employees, etc., I can’t help but to be impressed that they have done it again!

Sure, it is handy and convenient. Sure, the instant coffee is cleaner than the thick brown sludge found in the central office’s quarterly cleaned coffee maker. And, this is why I’ll go ahead and confess that yesterday, when they asked me to try the new instant VIA, they may have made a customer out of me. It was dark roasted and delicious. I was impressed and maybe I even want my own 12 pack supply of wasteful individually wrapped instant coffee servings.

Guess I’ll have to put off going green for some other time. Wins: Starbucks =40 41, JolieBlu=0