Sunday, February 19, 2006

Post your coffee recommendations here! Please!

Second Cup has discontinued its Early Edition blend, which is my absolute favourite coffee ever :( I suppose the good news is that I'm no longer paying $14 a pound for coffee and pretentiously taking up the time of Second Cup employees discussing filters and grinding while honest, hardworking citizens are just trying to get a cup of caffeine.

So now I'm in the market for a new coffee, hopefully something less pretentious this time.

I'm looking for a smooooth coffee that I can buy in the supermarket* (or anywhere else in the Yonge & Eg or Yonge & Shep neighbourhoods that doesn't involve going out of my way) and that will stand up to storage by just sticking the lid back on and putting it in the cupboard*. I use a mediocre basket drip machine* and drink my coffee with skim milk.* I'm attempting to avoid the unpleasant, sharp, bitter taste that comes about halfway through a can of Tim Horton's coffee - it starts out okay, but after it's been open in the cupboard for a while it gets this sharp, yucky undertone. I want something that will stay smooooth for the whole can. Any recommendations?

If you don't understand half of what I said in that previous paragraph but have a coffee you enjoy, post it anyway :)

As with all posts where I actively solicit suggestions, anonymous comments are welcome here, although I still prefer if you select "Other" and give yourself a pseudonym :)

*Yes, I realize all these statements are considered heresy by some. If you find them so shocking or disgusting that you can't bring yourself to recommend a coffee within these parameters, it is not your input that I am seeking.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Has it occurred to you that your requirements may well be impossible to meet considering the parameters of the allowed recommendations? It makes about as much sense (to me) as asking for red wine recommendations, but requiring that the suggested wines hold up in open air for 3 weeks at room temperature. There are perfectly good reasons why coffee-drinkers store their coffee properly and don't grind it until it's brewing time, one of them being the eventual development of sharp, yucky undertones in the finished beverage if they do otherwise.

Confining myself to the given parameters, if I was to recommend something, I would say stick with the Timmy's coffee and just chuck it out when you think it's past its prime. The next step up is to spring for a 15$ electric grinder and find a joint that roasts its own beans, or at least knows where and when their beans were roasted --- there are several places like this in Toronto. Buy 1-2 weeks worth at a time, and store them (at room temp) in an airtight container. Grind what you use when you use it. I'll spare the lecture on brewing methods, and of course what you like in your coffee is nobody's business but yours.

Anonymous said...

Sorry to hear that your favourite coffee at Second Cup has been discontinued. I wish I could share your pain but Early Edition was never one of my favourites. It had no character to discribe the coffee. Your identity with coffee seem to have only one description which is "Smooooth". Similar to wine, coffee cupping identifies four major characteristics, which are aroma, taste, acidity and body. To replace Early Edition and at a resonable price, I would recommend the following coffees at Second Cup. Huehuetanago is actually a really good coffee at about $12/lbs. It has a floral aroma and sweet taste, low acidity and medium body; which means you can drink it all day long and won't get that heavy feeling in your stomach or that heavy film on your tongue (spell check please). One of my favourites and very affordable is the Ethiopian Limu. It has a natural chocolate nutty note (not an added flavour), high acidity and medium body. But watch out for those African coffees because they are known for high acidity which could cause burning sensations when you have to pee. My last recommendation is a costly one. Try the La Minita Tarrazu which has a true coffee aroma and taste. It is bright, meaning acidic, floral aroma, sweet to winey tasting and medium body.

By the way, I am not only a Second Cup customer, I am also a Franchisee owner.

impudent strumpet said...

Anon #1: All I know is that it is not uncommon for people to buy a can at the grocery store, stick it on the shelf, and have no qualms about serving it to people without any further ado or doctoring or special storage containers. While I am aware that, as with everything, internet people are generally more likely to be coffee geeks, I thought that perhaps someone who had a grocery store solution was reading this.

I am quite aware of the virtues of grinding/roasting one's own and getting fussy about brewing methods, it's just not something I find worthwhile, the same way I don't make my own clothes or grow my own produce.

Anon #2, the Second Cup person: First, thank you for your full disclosure. :) I have the Ethiopian one, but didn't like it. I tend not to like anything that can be described as "nutty", except for actual nuts. I've also tried Huehuetenago and La Minita and have no problem with either of them (although I always make a fool of myself attempting to pronounce Huehuetenago), but neither of them made me go "Wow, I've got to get more of this!" like Early Edition did when I first tried it. They are perfectly serviceable coffees with nothing wrong with them, but I'm not going to spend $12 a pound and make a big fuss of getting beans at Second Cup if I can get a perfectly serviceable coffee at the grocery store for $6 a pound and no fuss whatsoever.

If I still have your attention, since you seem to know all the taste description words, do you know the word for the yucky that I'm trying to avoid in the Tim Horton's coffee?

impudent strumpet said...

In what? Glass? Plastic? Tupperware? The original can? Do you have to defrost it between freezing and brewing? If so, how do you tell if it's defrosted?