Archive for coffee
Biodegradable coffee bags
August 1st, 2008 • 7 comments coffee, environmentalism
Tags: coffee, environmentalism
Now, anyone that’s been reading this blog since some time last year, knows I like a lot. Apparently there’s this coffee place called Larry’s Coffee that now offers biodegradable bags that they ship their coffees in.
Yes, even though they’re still made from petroleum plastics, the vendor Larry’s gets these bags from say they biodegrade 100%, there’s even EPA-backed tests to prove it. This is a great change in the delivery of small batch coffee, I hope that more roasters start doing this. I really hope my current favorite roaster, Gorilla Brand Coffee (Blendimentosis is amazing), starts offering these soon. I’m always torn up about what I should do with my empty coffee bags. I can’t tell if they’re totally recyclable (foil inside, unknown ink outside) and I’ve yet to find a good use for them. Maybe I’ll start hauling out the cat poop in them like I do the paper bags we get.
I’m going to order a batch or two from Larry’s so I can fondle these fancy new bags in person. I like the sound of the Bean Martin Blend. Catchy name.
Via Treehugger
How does a USPS package manage to get delivered on a Sunday?
September 10th, 2007 • 2 comments chatter, coffee
I wish I knew because according to usps.com, I had a packaged delivered to me yesterday at 9AM. I was tricked and fooled by an evil postmaster! However, I got the package today and it’s my latest shipment of coffee from The Coffee Fool. This is the first order I’ve made since mid July even though I’ve had an average of about 32 oz. of coffee 6 days a week of Coffee Fool coffee.
Today, I got my standard shipment of Velvet Hammer (wet roasted, silky aroma, kick-in-the-teeth taste) and my first order of Nicaraguan Matagalpa which is supposed to be full bodied yet somewhat chocolate-y and smooth. We’ll see! I’m about to grind up the bag and put it through its paces.
Yum!
Guest blogging
July 30th, 2007 • blog, chatter, coffee
I’ll be doing a spot as a guest blogger over at Mission To Be A Millionaire this week. I’ll be writing about how to save money on my most coveted vice: premium coffee. It’ll be a two part series of posts discussing how I’ve managed to save a good deal of money on premium coffee while getting more value from it.
The first part will be up this week while the second part will take a bit more time since I’ve got more “math stuff” to do on the back-end before I can finish up.
What does your coffee mug say about you?
Reading through my feeds tonight, PZ had a post about his coffee mugs and what they may say about him which was inspired by his fellow Scibling David Ng‘s post about the same thing. David posited three simple questions about your mug:
1. Can you show us your coffee cup?
2. Can you comment on it? Do you think it reflects on your personality?
3. Do you have any interesting anecdotes resulting from coffee cup commentary?
3. Can you try to get others to comment on it?
(I believe the second #3 is either supposed to be #3b or #4)
So, what’s my mug? It’s a Starbucks 16oz write-on tumbler in the fashion of their paper cups:
This is my 4th tumbler from Starbucks and is the second one like this I’ve actually bought. I broke the first one by first giving it a nice drop kick in the dark when I dropped it and mistook it for a cat — no, I wasn’t trying to kick my cats — and I also dropped the top and broke its sealing arm. Does it reflect on my personality? I don’t really think so. If it spoke of my personality, it’d simply say that I’m a herd-following coffee guzzler that’s “hip” and likes to be in the “third place” according to Starbucks. Those who know me know that I’m anything but a herd follower and much prefer to do my own thing. I think the cup simply reflects on my fondness of convenience of coffee. For #3a, I’ve had quite a few comments made about the cup. A spry barista at Town Center’s new Starbucks commented on how “cute” and “awesome” it was that I had my order written on the cup, ready for them to prepare. She doesn’t realize that I got it because I’m tired of people mucking up what I want and prefer a more streamlined experience of getting my coffee. Most baristas love the fact that they don’t have to hear my psychobabble about my order and then have to transcribe it to their own shorthand. Now, there’s an easy formula for them to follow written right there: SFV S L (and I wrote Grande at the top so they know what size it is after being asked about 15 times “Is that a venti?”). This too makes it easier for them to ring me up although, most still get the price wrong. Down here, it’s $4.10 after tax and the paltry $0.10 cup discount. I only get $0.10 for trying to save the environment!?
As for others commenting on it, I get lots of looks at the local Starbucks from patrons and workers alike. Many people still comment on the “cool” aspect of having a cup that looks just like the regular cups. Shocking! I just like having an always available cup for whenever I want coffee, whether it’s at my office or out on the town.