I logged on to Starbucks' website this evening, hoping to find something to talk shit about for a blog entry. Feeling particularly snarky, and quite primed, with Frank Zappa's The Gumbo Variations playing on my speakers, I opened up the Community Service section, in their Global Responsibility page. In the full throes of my bitter sarcasm, I saw a short video advertisement for City Year, Inc.
As a City Year alumnus and aspiring professional in the education field, I could not ignore this. What are the tentacles of such a foul corporate megalith as Starbucks doing in this idealistic non-profit organization? Even more disturbing, why am I at a complete loss for smart-ass remarks?
This is because I know what City Year did for me and for the students with whom I worked, and what they continue to do across the world. This organization galvanizes earnest young people, and gives them the resources and the connections to make the difference in the world for which they thirst. The danger of idealism is, when not used, it can make the proponent very cynical and angry about the bad things which grow worse by the day.
Given the proper outlet, this desire to see good in the world can be quite powerful. As we wonder what will become of the mobs in Occupy Boston, Wall Street, et al, many of us feel a twinge of hope, rooting for the good guys, even though the results of that are often bleaker in real life than in a Harry Potter book or a Star Wars movie. Michael Brown and Alan Khazei, however, started City Year as a pile of paperwork at Brown's parents' dining room table, and managed to grow this seed into a multi-national network of corps members and administrators. The results? Improved test scores from elementary to high schools, gardens and murals in neighborhoods that needed them, and a chance for some frustrated young adults to do something with their youthful angst.
Their jackets may be annoying, and their PT sessions may look like Tourette's Syndrome in action, but despite these minor eccentricities, our nation and our generation are quite lucky for this force and this opportunity, for those thusly interested. If that interest applies to you, you might be interested to know that there is a $5,000 scholarship, as well as many other scholarship and networking opportunities, waiting for you at the other end. If you've never been responsible for the development of a child into a young adult, now you can be. If you never kicked a home run in kickball, now you can. If you've never had a child one third your age tell you that you were his best friend, now you can hear it! Having had these experiences, I look back on what I had considered truly good in life before, and I shake my head in wonder. The world, and my heart, are both bigger places.
If anyone has questions, please ask!
Coffee! Occasionally frightening, always necessary.
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Monday, October 17, 2011
Feces, sweet feces
Yes, this title is upsetting -- but only because wonderful things can be quite upsetting. If I may shed a bit of unsavory light on what pleases you all, then I'm a happy guy.
More to the point, the title refers to Kopi Luwak. This is a top-shelf brand of coffee, harvested by collecting the feces of the Asian Palm Civet, a frugivorous weasel of Southeast Asia which feeds largely on the berries of the Coffee Tree. This animal is nocturnal, and thus relies heavily on its sense of smell to find food; thus, the berries it eats are very ripe and flavorful. As you, my faithful reader, now know from the educational gems on my blog, coffee "beans" aren't beans; they are seeds, which come from the berries which go into the weasel's gullet and out the other end.
Now, if you're anything like me, you find yourself asking, "Why feces? Isn't weasel shit quite dirty?" Good questions, both. Regarding the advantages of this process, the stomach of the Kopi Luwak contains proteolytic enzymes (not gonna link to an explanation, because I know you won't read it -- we're English majors here) which seep into the beans and yield shorter peptides and more free amino acids. More simply, it deconstructs protein chains, which are largely responsible for coffee's bitterness. This, coupled with the Civet's impeccable taste in coffee berries, yields a very smooth, unassuming brew.
If you still feel apprehensive about drinking weasel shit, you aren't alone! To this concern, though, I'd like to start by saying that this coffee is FDA-approved. This sanction is motivated by the intensive, elegantly simple cleaning process which is used for all coffee, defecated or otherwise.
The first step is washing. Nothing fancy, just water and patience. The beans are then roasted. These high temperatures destroy bacteria (think back to the Governor's "boil water" order that came down when we found out our drinking water just might give us dysentery or giardia). Once the coffee finds its way to the coffee shop or the kitchen, it becomes a beverage, which process involves percolating with water as hot as 210 degrees. Even if the coffee hadn't been roasted, this treatment would only eliminate more bacteria, making it that much safer. By the time the coffee arrives in your cup, your only hygiene concerns should be whether or not your idiot flatmate washed your cup after he used it, or if the barista washed his hands after that long trip to the bathroom.
For the sake of honesty, I should add that I've never had Kopi Luwak before -- it is the most expensive coffee on Earth, and a Rockefeller I am not. As a coffee devotee, this is my white whale. If, out of gratitude to me for my lovely articles, some saintly reader decides to buy me a bag of these sacred grounds (hint hint), this blog will have done more for me than I ever dreamed.
More to the point, the title refers to Kopi Luwak. This is a top-shelf brand of coffee, harvested by collecting the feces of the Asian Palm Civet, a frugivorous weasel of Southeast Asia which feeds largely on the berries of the Coffee Tree. This animal is nocturnal, and thus relies heavily on its sense of smell to find food; thus, the berries it eats are very ripe and flavorful. As you, my faithful reader, now know from the educational gems on my blog, coffee "beans" aren't beans; they are seeds, which come from the berries which go into the weasel's gullet and out the other end.
Now, if you're anything like me, you find yourself asking, "Why feces? Isn't weasel shit quite dirty?" Good questions, both. Regarding the advantages of this process, the stomach of the Kopi Luwak contains proteolytic enzymes (not gonna link to an explanation, because I know you won't read it -- we're English majors here) which seep into the beans and yield shorter peptides and more free amino acids. More simply, it deconstructs protein chains, which are largely responsible for coffee's bitterness. This, coupled with the Civet's impeccable taste in coffee berries, yields a very smooth, unassuming brew.
If you still feel apprehensive about drinking weasel shit, you aren't alone! To this concern, though, I'd like to start by saying that this coffee is FDA-approved. This sanction is motivated by the intensive, elegantly simple cleaning process which is used for all coffee, defecated or otherwise.
The first step is washing. Nothing fancy, just water and patience. The beans are then roasted. These high temperatures destroy bacteria (think back to the Governor's "boil water" order that came down when we found out our drinking water just might give us dysentery or giardia). Once the coffee finds its way to the coffee shop or the kitchen, it becomes a beverage, which process involves percolating with water as hot as 210 degrees. Even if the coffee hadn't been roasted, this treatment would only eliminate more bacteria, making it that much safer. By the time the coffee arrives in your cup, your only hygiene concerns should be whether or not your idiot flatmate washed your cup after he used it, or if the barista washed his hands after that long trip to the bathroom.
For the sake of honesty, I should add that I've never had Kopi Luwak before -- it is the most expensive coffee on Earth, and a Rockefeller I am not. As a coffee devotee, this is my white whale. If, out of gratitude to me for my lovely articles, some saintly reader decides to buy me a bag of these sacred grounds (hint hint), this blog will have done more for me than I ever dreamed.
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Irrelevant...but so be it.
This doesn't pertain to coffee, but I'm posting it because I think the artwork is clever and I love it when people take on the junk food industry!
Eat this, General Mills!
Eat this, General Mills!
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
You don't HAVE to drink it...
When I lay aside my own passion, from time to time, I am curtly reminded that some people hate coffee. More specifically, they hate the popular beverage brewed from roasted coffee beans.
Example #1
Example #2
The coffee tree, however, has more to offer than this drink.
Coffee "beans" are not beans. They are seeds. The coffee tree yields fruit, and the seeds to this fruit are the source of the drink. The fruit (called the "coffee cherry") is a drupe. This cherry is sweet, tangy and citrusy, more so as the fruit ripens, changing from a pale green to a deep blood red or royal burgundy. Forget the taste of coffee; the taste of the cherry is as different as the taste of apples from that of a drink brewed from its own seeds, were they to be roasted and percolated.
This fruit is quite versatile. Some smaller coffee roasters dry the skin, giving us a dehydrated husk which retains its flavor, much like dried apples or apricots. This product contains simple and complex carbohydrates, as well as some tannic acids to give the sweet flavor a tart finish. The flavor is sometimes likened to watermelon or papaya; in my opinion, the flavor resembles a delightfully tart cherry. The cherries are a healthful snack, quite at home in any trail mix, though delightful as a stand-alone snack. Blue State Coffee, on Commonwealth Avenue in Allston, makes a kick-ass herbal tea which refreshes beyond belief in the summer when served iced. The tea's caffeine content is effectively zero; caffeine is found almost exclusively in the seed, developed as a toxin to deter herbivores from consumption so that the plants can reproduce (as a botanical rule, fruits "want to be eaten", whereas their seeds must live to fight another day to maintain or increase the plant's species population).
The only obligations to drink coffee are self-imposed. If one doesn't want it, one may ignore it, no questions asked. However, that doesn't mean that the coffee plant is, categorically, "not for you". I regard coffee seeds as precious jewels. As if to give a picturesque confirmation of my bias, the seeds come snugly wrapped in what looks like a small ruby. If you like fruit (and who doesn't), give these a try. What's the worst that could happen?
Example #1
Example #2
The coffee tree, however, has more to offer than this drink.
Coffee "beans" are not beans. They are seeds. The coffee tree yields fruit, and the seeds to this fruit are the source of the drink. The fruit (called the "coffee cherry") is a drupe. This cherry is sweet, tangy and citrusy, more so as the fruit ripens, changing from a pale green to a deep blood red or royal burgundy. Forget the taste of coffee; the taste of the cherry is as different as the taste of apples from that of a drink brewed from its own seeds, were they to be roasted and percolated.
This fruit is quite versatile. Some smaller coffee roasters dry the skin, giving us a dehydrated husk which retains its flavor, much like dried apples or apricots. This product contains simple and complex carbohydrates, as well as some tannic acids to give the sweet flavor a tart finish. The flavor is sometimes likened to watermelon or papaya; in my opinion, the flavor resembles a delightfully tart cherry. The cherries are a healthful snack, quite at home in any trail mix, though delightful as a stand-alone snack. Blue State Coffee, on Commonwealth Avenue in Allston, makes a kick-ass herbal tea which refreshes beyond belief in the summer when served iced. The tea's caffeine content is effectively zero; caffeine is found almost exclusively in the seed, developed as a toxin to deter herbivores from consumption so that the plants can reproduce (as a botanical rule, fruits "want to be eaten", whereas their seeds must live to fight another day to maintain or increase the plant's species population).
The only obligations to drink coffee are self-imposed. If one doesn't want it, one may ignore it, no questions asked. However, that doesn't mean that the coffee plant is, categorically, "not for you". I regard coffee seeds as precious jewels. As if to give a picturesque confirmation of my bias, the seeds come snugly wrapped in what looks like a small ruby. If you like fruit (and who doesn't), give these a try. What's the worst that could happen?
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Saturday, October 1, 2011
A gift from a narcissist
If a man has a big mouth regarding a particular topic (see where this is going?), sooner or later, someone will call his bluff. I talk a big game, but where do I get my coffee? What follows is a list of my favorite java joints; my favorite roasters are Stumptown, Barrington and Novo, so my mental divining rod sniffs these places out and catalogues them for future needs.
Cafe Fixe
Located in Washington Square in Brookline, the decor is simple and the coffee is beyond reproach. They offer pour-overs (an individually brewed mug of coffee), meticulously crafted shots of espresso (you'll see what I mean) and affogatos (coffee with some ice cream, nothing like the glorified milkshakes of my prior invective), to name a few. The mugs are preheated for pour-overs, to prevent the shock of hot coffee in a cool mug from destabilizing the drink. This is the kind of expertise you'll find here. The owner noticed that I draw a glass of water from the self-serve tap whenever I come in, so he always gives me a glass of ice water with my espresso and Greek yogurt (served with Lincolnberry jelly). Thoughtful, right?
Interesting side note; the bathroom here is awesome. Very clean, minimalist decor (as is the whole store) with Tea Tree scented liquid hand soap, and you don't have to wait forever for the water to heat up. They have usurped Starbucks' previously held title of "My favorite coffee shop bathroom". For all my grievances with the latter shop, I must say, they hire pretty good contractors to do their bathrooms; this confirmed what I already suspected, that Starbucks specializes in toilet water.
Thinking Cup
This place, located on Tremont St. near the Boylston T station, received a write-up in the Boston Herald for their pour-overs. The interior is very warm, and the table surfaces feature laminated nineteenth and early twentieth century newspaper articles, reporting Civil War battlefield updates and antique advertisements for samurai swords, among other things. I always order a pull of Stumptown's Hair Bender, being a creature of habit. The pastries look amazing, too, for those so inclined.
Area 4
This place opened a few years ago in Technology Square, Cambridge, near Central Square. Area 4 has two distinct operations in one establishment; a bar/restaraunt, and this exquisite coffee shop. Their "coffee director" (the first time I'd heard of this well-deserved title) is something of a wizard, whom I'd seen in the newspaper article lauding this shop. He gave me a sample of a pour-over of a Guatemalan blend, and I was sold (well, the cup of coffee was sold...to me. You get it.). My brother ordered a cold brew, which I sampled, and was enchanted.
Voltage Coffee and Art
Located somewhat near Kendall in Cambridge, Voltage sells coffee, and they sell paintings. They are both works of art. For those trying to ween themselves off high-calorie coffee drinks, Voltage has some very complex, creative beverages that scratch the itch and don't need 600 calories to do it. This is an update, as I was pressed for time when writing this yesterday (Saturday) and trying to list beverages from memory, and it sucked. So, click here for the Voltage menu. Being that this is an English class, I assume we can all appreciate a drink called the "Atticus Finch".
My tastes are quite simple, so I ordered their Guest Espresso (a Barrington Roast, nom nom) when I checked the place out. My brother ordered the Eclipse (coconut & ginger simple syrup) -- vivacious!
Cafe Fixe
Located in Washington Square in Brookline, the decor is simple and the coffee is beyond reproach. They offer pour-overs (an individually brewed mug of coffee), meticulously crafted shots of espresso (you'll see what I mean) and affogatos (coffee with some ice cream, nothing like the glorified milkshakes of my prior invective), to name a few. The mugs are preheated for pour-overs, to prevent the shock of hot coffee in a cool mug from destabilizing the drink. This is the kind of expertise you'll find here. The owner noticed that I draw a glass of water from the self-serve tap whenever I come in, so he always gives me a glass of ice water with my espresso and Greek yogurt (served with Lincolnberry jelly). Thoughtful, right?
Interesting side note; the bathroom here is awesome. Very clean, minimalist decor (as is the whole store) with Tea Tree scented liquid hand soap, and you don't have to wait forever for the water to heat up. They have usurped Starbucks' previously held title of "My favorite coffee shop bathroom". For all my grievances with the latter shop, I must say, they hire pretty good contractors to do their bathrooms; this confirmed what I already suspected, that Starbucks specializes in toilet water.
Thinking Cup
This place, located on Tremont St. near the Boylston T station, received a write-up in the Boston Herald for their pour-overs. The interior is very warm, and the table surfaces feature laminated nineteenth and early twentieth century newspaper articles, reporting Civil War battlefield updates and antique advertisements for samurai swords, among other things. I always order a pull of Stumptown's Hair Bender, being a creature of habit. The pastries look amazing, too, for those so inclined.
Area 4
This place opened a few years ago in Technology Square, Cambridge, near Central Square. Area 4 has two distinct operations in one establishment; a bar/restaraunt, and this exquisite coffee shop. Their "coffee director" (the first time I'd heard of this well-deserved title) is something of a wizard, whom I'd seen in the newspaper article lauding this shop. He gave me a sample of a pour-over of a Guatemalan blend, and I was sold (well, the cup of coffee was sold...to me. You get it.). My brother ordered a cold brew, which I sampled, and was enchanted.
Voltage Coffee and Art
Located somewhat near Kendall in Cambridge, Voltage sells coffee, and they sell paintings. They are both works of art. For those trying to ween themselves off high-calorie coffee drinks, Voltage has some very complex, creative beverages that scratch the itch and don't need 600 calories to do it. This is an update, as I was pressed for time when writing this yesterday (Saturday) and trying to list beverages from memory, and it sucked. So, click here for the Voltage menu. Being that this is an English class, I assume we can all appreciate a drink called the "Atticus Finch".
My tastes are quite simple, so I ordered their Guest Espresso (a Barrington Roast, nom nom) when I checked the place out. My brother ordered the Eclipse (coconut & ginger simple syrup) -- vivacious!
Thursday, September 29, 2011
National Coffee Day
Yes, apparently this exists! In celebration, a few stores have chosen to give out free coffee today. Had I known of this before right now, I'd have posted this information earlier, and it might even have been useful to someone. Now, it's not. So click here for a useless list of places from which you could have had free coffee, had you and I been paying attention.
Hilarious AND Depressing!
During the Civil War, the South endured major economic hardships. They were constantly outmaneuvered by the economically/industrially superior North. Their trade was slowed from a boom to a slow trickle by Union blockades in their harbors as well as the increasing loss of use of the Mississippi River, made total by the surrender of Vicksburg, Mississippi on July 4, 1863 (poetic, no?). What is more, foreign nations refused to acknowledge them as a nation independent of the U.S. government, and the feeble currency they printed was a joke in the world market, with inadequate backing in the form of precious specie or industrial strength. Draconian cost-cutting measures were employed to cope with these straits. One of them was in the form of some very pathetic coffee substitutes, some descriptions of which I have conjured for your reading pleasure and outright disgust.
Here's One!
Disgusting, yet informative.
2nd half of article, for our purposes.
Even the affluent Southern aristocrats, influential politicians and ranking generals had to resort to this vile, distinctly uncaffeinated swill. All the while, on the other side of the Mason-Dixon, what were the Northerners using for coffee? Why, coffee, of course! Shelby Foote once said, "that the North fought [the Civil] War with one hand behind its back." That is, while the South put everything they had into fighting on their own territory, the Northern civilian population was comfortably removed from these battles (Sharpsburg and Gettysburg excepted) and only needed a part of their resources, while they were elsewhere able to expand and develop. Aside from the ~300,000 dead (a hefty butcher's bill, admittedly) the North enjoyed some degree of prosperity during the war, including the foundation of M.I.T., the establishment of the state of West Virginia and, of course, the wholesale abolition of slavery. Coffee was a mere feather in the cap of Northern prosperity
Here's One!
Disgusting, yet informative.
2nd half of article, for our purposes.
Even the affluent Southern aristocrats, influential politicians and ranking generals had to resort to this vile, distinctly uncaffeinated swill. All the while, on the other side of the Mason-Dixon, what were the Northerners using for coffee? Why, coffee, of course! Shelby Foote once said, "that the North fought [the Civil] War with one hand behind its back." That is, while the South put everything they had into fighting on their own territory, the Northern civilian population was comfortably removed from these battles (Sharpsburg and Gettysburg excepted) and only needed a part of their resources, while they were elsewhere able to expand and develop. Aside from the ~300,000 dead (a hefty butcher's bill, admittedly) the North enjoyed some degree of prosperity during the war, including the foundation of M.I.T., the establishment of the state of West Virginia and, of course, the wholesale abolition of slavery. Coffee was a mere feather in the cap of Northern prosperity
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Would you like fries with that?
I think a good cup of coffee should be like a smart-ass remark; bitter and to the point, with a rare suggestion of sweet. So a cardboard tankard full of sugary swill as a coffee fix, in my opinion, is an odd substitute. Personal grievances aside, one of these caffeinated milkshakes (hot or iced) is quite a different animal from a cup of black coffee or espresso with a couple tablespoons of milk and a packet of sugar or Splenda. Drinking one's calories doesn't make them less, well, caloric. In the name of curiosity, and the right to say, "I told you so!", I'd like to take a look at some examples of these gut-busting attempts at coffee.
Pumpkin Spice Crème -- Starbucks Coffee
This drink choice is appropriate (Happy autumn!); the grave accent over the "e" in crème, is not. If "Pumpkin Spice" is written in English and "Cream" is in French, you're not just pretentious, but inconsistent as well. The King's English was working just fine, thank you.
On topic, the nutritional breakdown for a 16 oz. serving is; 400 calories, 14 grams of fat, 52 grams of carbohydrates and 15 grams of protein. To be fair, we must remember that calories from protein cannot be stored as fat, so at 4 calories/gram that means that 60 calories may be subtracted from our figure of 400, resulting in 340 calories that can be stored as fat (this is a generous oversimplification which ignores individual metabolic rates and lipolytic tendencies, but Starbucks is lucky to have caught me in a good mood; ergo, their drinks seem a bit less fattening by my non-professional account. Always consult your doctor before deciding that guzzling saturated fat and high-fructose corn syrup is a good idea).
Godiva Dark Chocolate Raspberry Freddo -- Peet's Coffee and Tea
The name is a mouthful, and so is the beverage. Moving up in the world, this drink takes us to 510 calories (for a medium beverage; the large is 680. I wanted to have a constant size when comparing drinks to eliminate the size variable, but Peet's website doesn't list the weight of their drinks, so this constant ceased to be an option). Once the calorie content of the protein is kindly subtracted, we're left with 482 grams of fatty, sugary calories (again, in a medium, though this name doesn't make sense; if something is to be dubbed medium, there must be a size below it).
The macronutrient breakdown is 17 grams of fat, 86 grams of carbohydrates and 7 grams of protein -- of the 86 grams of carbohydrates, 80 grams are sugar (this would include lactose; the specific types of sugar are of rather mysterious classification, as Peet's isn't quite transparent with their ingredients). As a gentle reminder, I feel I should state that this amount of sugar is a full pint of ice cream's worth. These figures include 8 tbsp, or a little over 4 ounces, of whipped cream.
White Chocolate Mocha -- Seattle's Best Coffee
Again, in the absence of ounces and grams, I had to resort to the "medium" measurement on their website (whatever that is). To their credit, SBC did our language the courtesy of using the term for something nestled between a small and large. The kudos ends there; one medium yields 420 calories; 17 from fat, 57 from carbohydrates (at 52 grams of sugar) and 10 grams of protein.
Another aside; Seattle's Best Coffee is now owned by megalith-Starbucks, which was founded in Seattle. Doesn't the name of the former therefore amount to insubordination, if not outright treason? Doesn't this mean an exile or a hanging?
Postscript -- From your waistline, with love
This exploration is not intended as a grand indictment against desserts or the chains which I've mentioned (the latter is only incidental -- not my purpose). These unhealthful concoctions are part of a much bigger problem of obesity rates and poor nutritional practices in this country. When one wakes up, one has been fasting for the amount of time they've been asleep (hopefully ~8 hours) plus the time between their dinner and bedtime. If we say that it has been 10 hours since they last ate, then I imagine we can agree it's high time this person had something to eat. Yet, many people skip breakfast, despite having fasted for this length of time for which they'd never fast while awake. Assuming this person doesn't skip his or her morning coffee (a fair assumption) his or her body will have been craving calories throughout the night, the morning routine, all the way up to entering the coffee shop. So wanting a high calorie drink will be a thermodynamic matter of course. The calorie sources in the drinks we looked over, however, are high-butterfat cream (~36% butterfat or more, compared with ~28% for the cream used in ice cream) and sugar. Most would never eat high-fat ice cream for breakfast, but some people, evidently, are happy drinking it for breakfast, provided it has 150 mg of caffeine to amplify the buzz, which will turn to a rotten sluggish insulin crash and subsequent craving for more caffeinated sugar in a few hours, depending on individual metabolic rates.
If this all weren't bad enough, nobody thinks of these drinks as a meal, despite the calorie content. They think of these drinks as just that. This poses the twin dangers of making people cavalier about drinking them, and causing people to neglect the calories they've taken in through these drinks when making other food and exercise choices. If people did wind sprints and push-ups for an hour after drinking these caffeinated milkshakes and ate chicken and brown rice for dinner, there would be less concern regarding the consumers and the beverages. Drinking a Freddo while sitting behind a desk for 8 hours and going home to pizza and beer, however, means atherosclerosis, hypertension or type-2 diabetes are patiently waiting, as it won't be long until their arrival.
Monday, September 19, 2011
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