Coffee Break [4/1/21]

Your mid-morning pick me up.

4/1/21 Hannibal 47

According to Coffee Gator, a top trend in java for 2021 is the coffee subscription. I was the lucky recipient of one as a Christmas gift and am now awaiting delivery of, Klatch Amazon Blend, one of the selections curated for me by Trade. It’s described as smooth, chocolatey, and just a little wild. Expect a review.

Did you get any interesting food or beverage presents over the holiday, discover any tasty new snacks or drinks?

avataravataravataravataravataravataravataravataravataravataravataravatar

47 Comments

  1. You’ll have to let us know how you end up liking/disliking Trade. I’ve looked at them, and they intrigue me. Especially because they offer decaf. 
     
    One thing that I tried over the holidays that I really liked was a local brewer’s take on Scotch ale.
     

     
    One 22-oz. bottle is all I need. I’ll be having some more of that this winter. 
     

  2. I used to do the whole coffee thing, with either a French press or aero press, but then I got really sick of grinding beans, and of washing the French press (though the aero press isn’t as fussy to wash). I suppose I could have taken the shortcut of buying pre ground, but instead I took the shortcut of just buying cold brew. I like Stok and Chameleon. Maybe at some point I’ll get myself back into making coffee. 

  3. I once got a subscription box as a gift and I loved it. Problem was, it was beer of the month club (three bottles of four different ones every month), it was delivered to my office, and our division head happened to be standing at the reception desk when it arrived. The delivery guy wouldn’t leave it until someone over the age of 21 signed for it, so the division head did. This was for my birthday, so it came out of the blue. That was a little awkward but not too bad. 

      • Hey, Hannibal, I have a question. I think I want to join BackTalk, a few GroupThink cronies seem to have landed there. I think I heard though that they had a troll problem. I don’t want author or mod privileges but I would like to go into the black (does BT have graying, like that shitty kinja system?) and star people whose comments I like. I’ll use this screen name, folks are bound to remember me from GT and Jezebel, so I don’t think I’d need a probation period. I may have to use a slight variant in case I’m told this is “already taken”, which it is, by me, but I never write down any passwords. Do you have any insight into this? I see you’re a member.

          • OK, I’ll give that a shot when some freewheeling thread gets going. At this point on the open threads I’ve read, I enjoy and am sympathetic to the threads but don’t really have anything to add. I am [gasp] not on Facebook and never have been, so I’ll see what other alternatives are available.

        • Hi there! Another longtime BackTalk member here. There is no grey or black comments on Blogspot. Anyone can comment on BT via a Disqus account (though we did have some troll issues the past few weeks, so a few caught in spam filter type hiccups have occurred). Once we get to know you a little better over there, then you can ask for author privs if you’d like to make your own posts.

          Look forward to seeing you over there! 🙂

        • Just checked and confirmed with kristinbytes, new commenters don’t need approval to comment or star, just a Disqus account. 
           
          (The only issue with comments getting temporarily lost or “greyed” would be if your comment has a link in it and you’re brand new, but we should catch that within a few hours and “unhide “ it so that it shows)

  4. …I think I had coffee subscriptions for about three christmases straight…but not this year…so either I was ahead of the trend or am exactly as unfashionable as I’d expect?

    …they were all good coffees that I enjoyed drinking but I never entirely got over the “tasting notes” sounding a little like the stuff I have a hard time taking seriously about wine

    …stuff like “top notes of cinnamon & cherry with a chocolate & molasses aftertaste” might go a long way with some people but I’d have been good with this-is-where-it’s-from & it’s-this-kind-of-nean/roast/whatever…it’s not like I’m not going to taste the stuff myself?

    • I’ve written a couple of satire tasting notes before. At this point in life, I scan the maker’s notes and then ignore them. By all means, just decide if you like the coffee/wine/beer or not and act accordingly. Any more I think tasting notes are provided as a marketing device, not as an educational device.

      • I like to try things before reading too many descriptors, especially wine, otherwise I feel it may subconsciously influence what I taste.  Beer, I have a pretty good palate & can get the same as many reviewers in blind tastings.  Wine is still a work in progress.  Coffee, I have no clue.  I enjoy it but can’t describe it like the others.  Off topic, I need to drink wine with Borat…
         

    • You set the trends, my good sir! I don’t take the tasting notes seriously either. But I do enjoy trying new coffees. My review will probably be along the lines of good – bad- no noticeable difference from grocery store coffee.

    • I have a completely immature palate. Coffee tastes like coffee. Red wine tastes like red wine. Beer tastes like beer. No, I do not detect subtle hints of vanilla, mahogany, and fjord or whatever.

  5. For Christmas, someone sent me a big box of selected stuff from nuts.com (I hope they weren’t throwing subtle shade).  Various delicious nuts and goodies.  There was also a bag of their coffee in their and I made it for the first time  yesterday.  It’s pretty terrific.  It doesn’t have any information about where the beans come from or whatnot, just “medium roast coffee”.  But wow is it ever good.

    • That reminds me of a time in college when a group of friends smoking weed were trying to decide what type of weed it was. Everyone offered their expert opinion then finally a guy from Central America with family ties to a notorious drug cartel remarked, “it’s good, green pot.” (I’m old, we called it pot in those days.) I thought it was both the most likely and hilarious. It pissed everyone else off. The moral of the story is – It doesn’t matter what you call it as long as it does the job.

    • I got some nuts from nuts.com from my Mom and Dad’s caregiver. So, yes, I’m assuming it was an indictment on the fact that they are insane. 

      She’s so sweet though – she sent me a thank you nuts to thank me for the thank you bonus I sent her at year end. [shrug]

Leave a Reply