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I’m now addicted.
It is in no way, shape, or form, is a “mild-medium” general purpose coffee like I asked when I was soliciting advice a while back, and, in fact, I think one step up from the Peet’s French Roast is some flavored version of JP-8, but after the shock of the first sip (initial reaction: “MY GOD- MY COMMENTERS WANT ME TO HAVE A HEART ATTACK”), I can’t drink anything else.
Plus, it makes my house smell amazing.
Also, the shaking stops after about twenty minutes.
Comments are closed.
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Colette
Welcome to the Hotel California. You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave…
Blogging in the Wind
We’re lucky enough to have a store in our downtown. Plenty of roasts to choose from (My favorite is the Garuda Blend, South Pacific islands). Peet’s is guaranteed to be fresh roasted within 10 days of your purchase. Look up it’s history, you know the Starbucks people came from Peet’s don’t you?
It’s been a Bay area favorite for years and its nice to see its made its way to the eastern part of the country.
Glad someone recommended it. I got my mother in law hooked on their decaf as well.
cleek
watch out for the underpants gnomes. they target people who drink too much strong coffee.
Polish the Guillotines
Peet’s. Feh. They burn the fucking beans. I’m sorry, but there it is. And I say this as someone who grew up in Berkeley before Starbuck’s invaded and Peet’s was the only cup in town.
I’m either a heretic or martyr for saying so, but it needs to be said.
Ned R.
Ha, I was just at the local one near work today. Soothing, that coffee.
SpotWeld
I’m pretty sure JP-8 is less flammable.
gus
Peet’s is good stuff, although I tend to buy Trader Joe’s French roast just to save a bit.
I gave up caffeine a few years ago after years of more or less being surgically attached to a Starbuck’s cup: Lack of sleep and irregular heart beats. Fortunately, I went to a cardiologist clever enough to ask about coffee intake.
So, these days I make strong decaf in a French press. It’s nice not going into withdrawal on those rare days when circumstances keep me from downing that morning mug’s worth.
The downside of going decaf is the near total lack of variety. I’d kill for a good decaf Kenya AA.
Colette
@Polish the Guillotines:
It depends on how you make it. Peet’s house blend is burnt-tasting and caustic in our automatic drip machine, but perfect in a French press.
MobiusKlein
Try Major Dickensons from Peets
JenJen
@Polish the Guillotines: Completely agree, and never understood the PeetCult. Fresh-brewed Peet always tasted to me like it had been left on the 7-Eleven burner for about five hours.
just visiting
You know, they DO burn the beans, but after a dozen years on the West Coast, it’s grown on me so much I don’t want to drink it any other way. I complained about it for a while after I moved out here, and now there are finally all these boutique roasters who don’t burn their beans, but they arrived too late for me. Ah well.
Thing is though, it tastes strong, but the longer beans are roasted, the less caffeine they will contain at the end. For what it’s worth.
Jordan
Try Lavazza, Illy, or really any of the 100% arabica blends. Espresso. Buy one of the little stovetop espresso makers made by Bialetti (around 25 bucks).
100% arabica is expensive. It’s expensive because it’s good. Stop wasting money on grinders, blends, flavors, French presses, fancy machines and all that junk.
It’s all in the bean.
[Although I like Peet’s a lot also, and don’t mind subbing it out if I can’t get my Lavazza in the morning.]
The Other Steve
Newt Gingrich just called for Pelosi to resign!
valdivia
hell yeah! welcome to the club. I am presently traveling in a country from which they export coffee and yet I miss my peets. It’s all in the roast.
Edit–Garuda rocks. I also love their Guatemalan Coffee.
JGabriel
John Cole:
I must try this coffee. I want to go to there (™ Tina Fey).
.
Terri
meh on the Peets. Try either the Dancing Goats or the Omars Organic from Batdorf and Bronson’s out of Washington State. Both are espresso blends,and smooth as a baby’s butt. One of only 2 vices I have left. Can’t talk about the other one.
Polish the Guillotines
@JenJen:
Aptly and ably described. It pains me grievously to know perfectly good coffee beans are needlessly incinerated.
Napoleon
@The Other Steve:
Is that peak wingnut?
Kyle
To steal a line from Lonesome Dove, I don’t care for coffee unless it’s so dark you can float a horseshoe in it. And Peet’s delivers. My personal recipe: one-half Peet’s French Roast; one-half Peet’s Sumatra.
Mike
Peet’s Guatemalan was my favorite until I discovered Stumptown and realized Peet’s over-roasts their beans. Try Stumptown if you can find it.
dave
2nd on the major dickasons blend. definitely the best coffee you can buy at the supermarket.
JGabriel
@The Other Steve:
Newt has a real problem with women.
.
The Tim Channel
Unfamiliar with this particular method of caffeine injection. Will have to do further research. I drink cafe au lait (coffee with steamed milk). I fell in love with in at the Cafe Dumonde in New Orleans. I’m not real particular with the brand of coffee I use as I am in using about twice as much of it as any normal human would consider sane.
I’ve got one of those inexpensive cappuccino machines that includes the milk steamer. I don’t do the cappucino/expresso stuff anymore. I prefer the steamed milk. I probably hadn’t drank a galloon of milk from age 20 to 45. At the point I’m now going through milk, I’m pretty sure the only thing keeping my veins together is the calcium scaffolding that is doubtlessly present.
One final necessary ingredient for the absolute perfection of succulence. Sugar. About twice as much as any normal human would consider sane.
Enjoy.
asiangrrlMN
@Napoleon: Ah, hell, no. The wingnuts are just warming up, baby! It’s spring training for them.
Newt is gonna be on Jon Stewart Monday night. One of you has to watch and report on it because I can’t bear to watch.
As for coffee, Dean’s Beans, bitches! They make a mean cup of coffee.
El Cid
Pelosi needs to make Newt cry. And other former Republican leaders now widely recognized as utter failures.
zmulls
Oh, my, yes, I’m sure I’m not the only one who shouted “Peet’s” to you, but it really is quite the brew.
I second the call for Major Dickesons (sp?) Blend. and the Garuda is nice as well.
Yes, the House Blend is maybe a bit towards “Starbucks burn” but it’s still a cup above most others. You have to figure the House Blend has some filler, shavings and sweepings in it.
And I also second the French Press (sorry, Freedom Press) to get maximum pleasure (and vibrating power) from your coffee. Order Peet’s online and get it ground the way you want.
Our local supermarket chain sells Peet’s but cleverly charges the supermarket bag is only 3/4 lb (and sells for the same price as an online lb). If I order two pounds online, even with the shipping it’s less than buying it at the store here.
Polish the Guillotines
@Colette:
I’d agree with you, but that would mean admitting I’ve had coffee prepared with a French Press.
SpotWeld
I have to ask… why is Newt Gingrich still revelant to anything?
How does he get air time.
It’s like going to M.C. Hammer for thoughts on the latest Grammy Winners.
ET
I meant to ask – didn’t you order Community Coffee and if so how did you like it?
asiangrrlMN
@JGabriel:
There. Fixed it for you. I hope.
TenguPhule
Because fat rich white man with the clap…I mean shut up, that’s why!
Brachiator
@The Other Steve:
Maybe Newt should just have a nice cup of coffee and try to calm down.
This is gonna be fun. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Newt or someother GOP surrogate on one of the Sunday pundit shows. Evidently, the idea is for the GOP to show what fabulous patriots they are by defending the CIA, even though thery are out of office or have been marginalized.
What a bunch of morans.
feebog
Had my first taste of Peets in 1996, when I was on a temporary assignment in San Francisco. One of the staff made a big pot every morning. I thought she was just a terrible coffee maker for weeks until I had a cup elsewhere and discovered it tasted just as bad. Sorry, I like a good cup a Joe as well as the next guy, but Peets is two letters too many, should just be called Pee.
Napoleon
@asiangrrlMN:
I DVR everyone of his shows. The thing is I have a hard time watchijng wingnuts.
horatius
You MONSTERS!!!!!
You have created a PEETHEAD!!!!
cleek
i hereby call on Newt Gingrich to suck my taint.
asiangrrlMN
@Napoleon: Yep, me, too to the latter part of your statement. I watch online the next day, and I couldn’t sit through Bill Kristol or…one other right-wing person. I can’t remember the name. That’s why I want one of the fearless trio who man this blog to watch–so I can save my eyeballs, my ears, and my brain cells.
TenguPhule
As if we’d let you off so easy. :p
TenguPhule
Please note, this is the same person who doesn’t trust the CIA when they tell him things he doesn’t like.
J.
Are you a man or a Starbucks-no-fat-latte-drinking wuss, John Cole? How many scoops of Peet’s French Roast are you using per cup of water, anyway? If it ain’t three to two, stop your whining and man up.
Men…
devopsych
“Our terror fighters?” Also, Peets smells like butt. YMMV
DanSmoot'sGhost
Peet’s is okay. I rate it as overpriced but I can get it on sale once in a while at a decent price.
For flavor, Gevalia is my favorite Dark, followed by Seattle’s Best French Roast.
For aroma, the order is reversed.
I keep some of these at the office to pamper myself when my boss gets on my nerves. Which is roughly every 45 minutes or so.
John Cole
I don’t care if they burn their beans and I don’t care about the particulars of their roasting process, all I know is that when I pour a steaming cup from the Bodum, add a little half and half, and take a sip, I like the smell, I like the taste, and my heart skips a beat.
I call that a win.
Bill H
Candyasses complain about Peets. Real men drink Peets, regardless of gender or sexual orientation; real men. Major Dickason, known as “The Major.” Also Garuda and Sumatra. The French Roast is what they do with the beans of other roasts that have not sold within the time limit; they put them back in the roaster and burn the shit out of them.
I make “The Major” in a 12-cup pot and only make 8 cups because that’s all the grounds basket will hold.
Brachiator
@feebog:
Thanks to some sidebar from an Andrew Sullivan blog reference, I learned that Tim Horton’s is practically the national brew of Canada.
Hat tip to Wikipedia and the Tim Hortons site.
But I think that Tim Hortons coffee probably tastes like Caribou.
Doctor Science
asiangrrlMN:
*high fives the Dean’s Beans’ drinker*
The thing about Dean’s is that my household goes through about 5 pounds of good coffee a month (we both work at home). We got used to Sumatran from the local roasting company (buckscountycoffee.com), but it got to be just too expensive In These Stressful Economic Times. We tried drinking cheaper coffee, but found that we needed to drink more of it to get the same hit, so ended up spending just as much money *and* having sour stomachs.
Solution: Dean’s! Even with shipping and grinding (yeah yeah, you’re supposed to grind your own, but neither the cat nor I can take the noise first thing in the morning) it ends up being less than $9/lb for organic, fair-trade, high test goodness.
TenguPhule
All signs of good *strong* coffee.
Atlliberal
Peet’s Italian roast is possibly the best coffee I’ve ever had. Strong but doesn’t taste burnt. It is definitely addictive. My husband, who used to think “coffee is coffee” now can tell when I buy something else with the first sip.
wasabi gasp
Meh, I eat Eight O’Clock beans right out of the bag.
cyd
Try Singaporean/Malaysian coffee if you ever get the opportunity. It’s difficult-to-impossible to find in the US (best bet is probably at an ethnic restaurant), but it blows everything else out of the water.
DanSmoot'sGhost
@John Cole:
That’s a win until you end up with an expensive cardiologist like I did. Now his kids are going to get a college education on my nickel. Having your heart skip a beat is really only a good thing when it’s on a greeting card.
HyperIon
I feel the same about my two cups of coffee in the morning. but I recently switched to a locally roasted product that is shipped on the day it is roasted. Plus I can get half-caf, which minimizes the jitters. But the odor of freshly brewed coffee is excellent.
Montysano (All Hail Marx & Lennon)
@asiangrrlMN:
What a world. Not “Newt’s gonna be on Meet the Press”, but on a farking comedy show, and it’s the only place where he’s likely to get asked a hard question. Of course, Newt is too chickenshit to go toe-to-toe with Rachel Maddow.
leinie
How did I miss that original thread, and my opportunity to point you to Three Peckered Billy Goat coffee?
Sup from the Cup that Keeps you UP, dude!
devopsych
Real men scrape the last, sad, crusty burnt offerings from an old Pyrex pot somewhere out on the lost highway. In Arkansas, maybe.
passerby
@gus:
Amen.
kindness
I switch off between the Major Dickenson, the 101 blend, the Garuda, the House Blend and whatever special blend they have going so I don’t get taste bud bored.
If you drink 3 cups of the stuff they make in the Peets stores out here in the Bay Area, you’ll be sweating & shaking just like in the old days when some of us still did the evil drugs. As such, I don’t drink more than 2 any more as that was not my favorite side effect from the evil drugs….(note – I stopped doing that back in ’87 so please cut me some slack).
KG
Newt is “relevant” because he’s going to run for president in 2012. It’ll be very, very ugly, but he will. I’d guess he’s even money right now to win the nomination, if only because it’s his turn, and that (barring 2000) is how the GOP nomination process works.
Dennis-SGMM
And I call on Newt Gingrich to stop being an idiot.
Chances of either one happening?
KG
the coffee talk has my contemplating a cup. I stopped drinking coffee a while back when I started drinking Rockstar (sugar free). We use to have a really sweet coffee maker in the office, latte type machine that grinds beans for a single cup, little steamer thing for milk… sorry, be right back
chuck
“I like Coffee X”
“Coffee X is burnt! Try Obscura Roast from NeverGonnaFindIt. You have to strain it through perforated llama testicles, and they better be Andean Aplacas, or you’re not drinking real coffee!”
We can all pile on Starbucks, because they really do burn their coffee. Peets is just plain good. The coffee bean is dead either way, so it really is a matter of taste.
kindness
OMG…Newt on Jon Stewart….sorry, I’m reading the comments from bottom to top.
regarding Newt not doing Rachel Maddow……why does that make me think of Deliverance? And I think the world of Rachel but she’d have her way with him, intellectually, every which way. Guess that’s where the Deliverance metaphor comes from.
jeffreyw
Please find a summary of your order from Peet’s Coffee & Tea below. PLEASE DOUBLE-CHECK, and if any of the information is incorrect, reply to this email with your corrections right away. Once an order has been accepted and scheduled to ship only very limited changes can be made.
Quantity Description Price
1 Aged Sumatra Whole Bean
1 Arabian Mocha Sanani Whole Bean
1 Brazil Monte Alegre Whole Bean
1 Ethiopian Fancy Whole Bean
1 House Blend Whole Bean
1 Kenya Auction Lot Whole Bean
1 Major Dickason’s Blend® Whole Bean
Luc
Peets and Charbucks both completely burn their coffee beans; Peets is the worst offender I am aware of.
Please try a coffee like the people in Costa Rica, Guatemala, Brazil, etc. are drinking them, or European coffee. I do not know of any other place which over-roasts the coffee like the US west coast geniuses.
MikeJ
When I was an east coaster and had regular contact with friends at state I would get packages from Africa, along with stories about walking through the marketplace in Harar and filling burlap bags with those beautiful beans. Moving to the west coast sort of killed coffee snobbery for me.
Colette
After a long primary punchup it will be Palin/Gingrich in 2012. And the Democrats shall reign forever and ever. (halleluia! halleluia!)
ZMulls, if it’s not too indiscreet to say this here, I’ve seen you around on the Dunnett lists. All these intertubes must lead into one another, or something.
R-Jud
See, I knew I shouldn’t have read this thread. I’ve already hit my limit today, caffeine-wise, and now I want a nice hot cup. But alas, beans adversely affect the Bean.
wesosan
All the haters coming out against Big Coffee. FYI – it doesn’t make you any better a person to claim that you would rather have some obscure roast grown by indigenous nudists in the local mountains.
Peets wins, you lose.
Also.
Colette
@Luc:
I agree that many places out here overroast the beans, but the only “coffee” I could ever find in Central America was instant coffee with condensed milk. Ick. The good stuff all got exported.
Mark Gisleson
Congratulations on becoming old and bitter like the rest of us!
Tom65
Does Peet’s come in a K-Cup?
*runs*
gbear
I’m not a coffee drinker but I used to have to deal with burnt beans on a daily basis. I worked in a second floor office with big operable windows (nice) that was next door to a coffee shop that roasted their own beans. Their roaster’s chimney was only 1-1/2 stories tall (not so nice) so when the wind was wrong, we’d get hit with the full force of roasting coffee to the point that my work would become obscured by a cloud of smoke. I actually still like that smell, but I can’t drink coffee if it’s not part of a mocha drink. I miss working in Linden Hills.
PS: A thimble of the gooey resin mess at bottom of that chimney could have kept you awake for months.
kindness
It’s too funny to see all the references to ‘east coast better coffee’ stuff here. Every time I go back to NYC to visit my family, they and most my old friends still think that Dunkin’ Donuts is the stuff that’s good. When I had to go to the Whole Foods off Union Square to buy a bag of Peets they made fun of me all week….but they drank the coffee when I made a pot.
asiangrrlMN
@Montysano (All Hail Marx & Lennon): You got that right. I don’t expect Jon to let him get away with shit, though. Y’all need to tell me if I’m right.
How about some live bloggin’ of Newt on Jon, John?
@Doctor Science: Best cup of coffee. I especially like the Mud Pie, but the Rattlesnake Brew is tasty, too. Reasonably priced and fair trade, too. It really can’t get any better than that.
Oh, and I ran out and bought some Cool Ranch Doritos, thanks to the gay-marriage thread.
Woody
I thought you’d decided on Community?
Whichever, buy the beans and grind ’em yourself.
I’ve been through several grinders. I prefer replacing them to the uncertainty of exactly what has been ground up and shoveled into the bags I used to buy. Then I heard a piece on Fresh Aire a coouple of weeks ago, an interview with an entomologist who studies dung-beetles…look it up, and listen on your way out to buy your own coffee mill…
MikeJ
Coffee related:
http://catandgirl.com/?p=370
asiangrrlMN
@gbear: You. It’s your fault I bought Doritos. You mentioned them, everyone else picked up on the theme, and next thing I knew, I had a bag of tasty Cool Ranch Doritos in my hand. Yup. You are an accomplice to and instigator of my Doritos buying.
Comrade Kevin
@horatius:
I believe the term is Peetnik.
gbear
@asiangrrlMN:
We had 1/2 price popcorn day at the office snack shop at work so Dorrito’s sounded like a bad idea even as I wrote it, but now I’ve got Jay Leno’s Dorritos pitch stuck in my mind. Ugh.
Indylib
Major Dickenson blend is good stuff if I’m choosing from what the grocery store has prepackaged. I started out my relationship with fresh roasted beans at Coffee Plantation in Tempe, Az, then was banished to the wilderness when I moved back home to southern Colorado for 3 years and had to buy from the grocery store back at a time that the best you could get was Millhouse. Then to Japan for 3 years where I had to buy what I could find at the base commissary. I drank a lot of Royal Hawaiian Kona Blend, cuz it was the best I could afford, the price of coffee in the Japanese grocery stores being more expensive than equivalent weight of assorted illegal drugs. Then to north Chicagoland where I discovered Starbucks Sumatra. I also ordered from Gevalia for a year. Then to Pacific Beach, the land of indy coffee houses, tattoo parlors and drunk college students. I got beans from a little tiny local place run by DFH’s that isn’t there anymore. Now I’m located in the exurb wilds of southern Wisconsin, where my locally owned giagantic grocery store, Woodman’s, introduced me to 2 Wisconsin roasters. Steep and Brew and Door County Coffee. I now order coffee from both of them. Black Velvet from Door County when I want to curl my toes and Mocha Java from Steep and Brew.
I can’t wait to see what I find the next time the good ol’ USN moves our butts to our next duty station. I’m hoping for Seattle, I think there’s an outside possibility I might find some decent coffee there.
asiangrrlMN
@gbear: Gah. Popcorn. You evil, evil, evil person. Now I want popcorn….
Bill In OH
I get my beans from a local roaster. Cravings, for those of you who may be in or familiar with the west side Cleveland suburbs. I simply cannot buy any other coffee now. The only way to get it any fresher is to roast ’em myself, and I have neither the inclination or the time to do that (not to mention the expertise).
But, regardless of the bean, what it really comes down to (per Mr. Cole) is that first, fresh, deeelicious sip. Ahhhh! God, I love coffee. (Runs off to brew a pot.)
The Cat Who Would Be Tunch
@asiangrrlMN:
Watch TDS at one frame per second. That should help you get through it.
TenguPhule
Pity they stopped making the Sour Cream and Onion ones, those were always my favorite, Ranch is a poor substitute.
R-Jud
@asiangrrlMN:
I am sitting here eating some RIGHT NOW. Home-made. Nyah.
Brachiator
@cyd:
Jamaican Blue Mountain. The which of which there is no whicher.
Johanys
I drank Peets all the time when I lived in the Bay Area. French roast is not their best coffee. Also, don’t just stick with the blends. They sell a lot of varieties that I love much more. Try their Sumatra, Sulalesi, Arabian Mocha Sanani, Arabian Mocha-Java, Ethiopean. They’ll also offer special lots. French press and half n half and what a cup!
asiangrrlMN
@The Cat Who Would Be Tunch: Hm. I might have to try that. Or play it
backwards. That would be funny. Or just get stinkin’ drunk.
@TenguPhule: When did they have those???? I want them!
@R-Jud: You suck. And I mean that in the nicest way possible. Well, I’m drinking a nice cup of coffee right now–no I’m not. I just wanted to make you jealous, too.
Stan Black
Good for you! Peets is awesome coffee stuffs. That’s one of the things I miss about California… I moved to Tennessee about five years ago – no Peets. I’m still pissed.
TenguPhule
Kona Coffee makes Blue Mountain it’s bitch.
TenguPhule
@asiangrrlMN
They discontinued them in the Mid-90s in favor of Cool Ranch.
But when they did make them, oh man they were soooooo good.< Salty tangy onion flavor with that creamy sour goodness at the end. My fingers were always prunes by the end of the bag.
The Moar You Know
OT: Michael “Savage” Weiner begs Hillary Clinton to save his ass from being shitcanned from Britain.
It’s so delicious it’s got to be fattening.
asiangrrlMN
@TenguPhule: Damn. That was before I was aware of the goodness that is Doritos.
The Moar You Know, what a whiny, punk-ass baby Savage is. Clinton should intervene on his behalf? Why? Fuck him. WE block people from coming into our country all the damn time. Wah, wah, wah, poor me! Talk about entitlement. The first time I tried to get into Britain, they almost didn’t let me in. What recourse would I have had if they simply refused to let ME in? Do you think Savage would have defended my right to enter England?
I need sugar now.
DanSmoot'sGhost
Might you be referring to Millstone, which if it is the same stuff they sell here, is some seriously awful shit? I mean, I’d rather drink Safeway brand salvage coffee that they get from the drain tank on vending machines.
TenguPhule
@asiangrrlMN
It was one of those things you just had to be there.
Also, warming up to Mort yet?
Or do you need something a bit grittier?
After rereading “The Truth” I realized Prachett was doing a bit of parody of Gaiman’s Neverwhere in it. You may want to try that next.
asiangrrlMN
@TenguPhule: I’m about a hundred pages into it, and I’m enjoying it. I like Mort quite a bit, and it’ll be interesting to watch him grapple with the issues surrounding his new job. I just got to the part when he saved the princess from her assassination. I like the princess.
Yeah, it’s not dark, but I don’t need dark ALL the time–just ninety-three percent of the time.
TenguPhule
@asiangrrlMN
Oh good, you are well on your way to becoming one of us. ^_^
By the time you get to “Hogfather” you’ll probably be in love with DEATH and Susan.
asiangrrlMN
@TenguPhule: Oh, I already love Death. He rules. Then again, I have a soft spot for Death, no matter his/her incantation. Death in Sandman is a stone-cold fox.
I am assuming that Susan isn’t in Mort.
R-Jud
@asiangrrlMN:
Eh, I’m over it. I wanted coffee, but this fluffy popcorn with garlic salt and cayenne pepper in just the right proportions will do just fine for now (chomp, chomp).
If it’s any consolation, I am doing keyterm research for a client at 11 pm on a Friday. About personality disorders. In French.
Chris Johnson
Another Peet Sumatra/Major Dick Coffee fan here :) you have to love a coffee that lets you say that it will even satisfy a MAJOR DICK… some mornings, I AM THAT DICK :D
Wish they had more varieties in whole bean where I get it- since I’m using a french press I want it a little coarser.
My most recent stupid coffee trick was finding out that it tastes better when I don’t get distracted and leave it stewing in the press until it gets unhot… there’s probably an optimum timing but I haven’t worked it out.
I am also very curious about the Eight-O-Clock variants (wtf is a Bokar Blend?) since Balloon Juice was right- it is quite good as a non dark burned and fancy coffee. Actually rather like plain Dunkin Donuts, which is similarly not roasted to a crisp… I didn’t know about the dark coffees having actually less caffiene but fiercer flavor, but it makes sense in restrospect.
DarrenG
Peet’s is perfectly serviceable as an every day coffee around the house.
[email protected] pretty much nailed it with all the coffee snobbery.
Sure, there’s much better out there. Over the holidays I had a $15 cup of coffee after dinner at Alan Wong’s in Honolulu that was apparently made from beans hand-picked by 18 year old virgins from God’s Own Plantation in some otherworldly island valley that about made me orgasm at the table. Can I get that coffee at home, or would I be able to afford to drink it every morning before work? Hell, no.
Svensker
@kindness:
You got that right. Maybe other places on the East Coast had good coffee, but NYC coffee was the stinks. Coming from the West to the East, I had major withdrawals and finally gave up trying to get good coffee locally and just bought from Gevalia. Lavazza was OK, too. Now, mostly, I drink cafe con leche made from Bustelo.
There used to be a place in Seattle, back in the 70s, down on the waterfront near the ferry terminals. The guy roasted his own coffee right there, most delicious coffee ever. I don’t think he survived Starbucks but I moved away from Seattle when the coffee wars heated up — maybe he ended being Seattle’s Best. Any Seattleites around here who know?
TenguPhule
You’ll see her in Soul Music, third book of the DEATH family series.
She doesn’t reach true greatness until “Hogfather”.
And…The POKER.
asiangrrlMN
@R-Jud: Where are you (in the world, I mean)? That popcorn sounds really, really yummy, but I don’t envy the keyterm research part. Though, I am interested in personality disorders. Although, my French isn’t good enough for me to read about disorders in French.
geg6
Gawd, is Peets another of those horrible West Coast brews like Starbucks that taste like it was brewed from the burned shoes of the homeless man living under the I-79 underpass for the last ten years? Count me out. I prefer my Dunkin Donuts, thank you very much. But not tonight. Tonight is sake and scallops and asparagus with a calimari appetizer at my favorite local Asian place. I’m starving from anticipating it all day. I still can’t believe such a great place with such fabulous and authentic Asian opened up here in Beaver County, where kung pao chicken is about as exotic as the fare usually gets.
zmullls
@Collette
You have certainly seen me a-Dunnetting. Sipping Peets’ Coffee and rereading Scales of Gold is one of those totally perfect experiences.
I have only rarely been on the Dunnett lists these days but you can track me down through my website easily enough.
This is the best thread ever. I must try the Italian Roast. Must Have.
blc
I echo all sentiments about The Major. Heaven in a Mug. Yes.
R-Jud
@asiangrrlMN:
Neither is mine, but don’t tell my client that. She liked my work last time well enough to come back for more. Besides, it could help me out, if on our next trip to France one of us has a nervous breakdown.
And I’m in the UK. Explanation here.
John Cole
Look- I hate Starbucks. Peets tastes nothing like it.
James K. Polk, Esq.
Disclaimer: I worked at the orignial Peet’s on Vine St. in Berkeley for about a year and half.
Peet’s coffee is not overroasted, with the exception of French Roast (which is a feature, not a bug). It’s not the best coffee, but it is head and shoulders above other major producers.
The best Peet’s coffees for brewed Coffee (in this order)
Kenya -> Ethopia -> Garuda
The best Peet’s for espresso
Garuda (the best espresso ever, period.) -> Italian Roast -> Sulawesi-Kalosi
This one time I had a guy from New York come in and trash talk West Coast espresso while I was manning the machine. I told him that I made the best espresso he would ever have. He ordered a double shot, so I poured him a really short triple shot.
He admitted it was the best he had ever had, and I gave him another double-sized triple shot on the house. He drank that down, and I forced a third triple on him. At that point he started to fly away, so I sent the (slightly green) man on his way.
Good times in Berkeley.
asiangrrlMN
@R-Jud: Aw, that’s very sweet. I like to see the interwebs put to good use. Good luck with your work.
Jerome
If you think the stuff you brew at home makes you vibrate, visit a Peet’s shop when you have a chance. I’m not quite sure how they manage to make it even stronger than I can manage with a French press, but they do. Yummy, but keep a cardiologist on hand.
A friend of mine in the Bay Area who is also a Peets’ addict recommends Bluebottle Coffee in Oakland (http://bluebottlecoffee.net/) but I confess I haven’t had a chance to try it out yet.
chuck
Peets gets some real nice limited editions too that made me rave:
Las Hermanas: Smoothest brew ever, it’s the carmelly goodness of the colombian varieties, turned up to 11.
Ethiopian Supernatural: Smells like blueberries. Tastes like blueberries. Damn strangest stuff, tasty tho.
The most recent variety they had was Sumatra Blue Batak (where the berries literally are blue, supposedly, but strangely not blueberry like the aforementioned). Totally failed to impress, tasted much weaker than normal Sumatra.
demimondian
@chuck: FWIW, coffee berries range from an odd greyish green to a striking blue. Roasting coffee smells like peanuts…until the raost really kicks in. Then it smells of scorch.
And sets your smoke detector off.
Dennis-SGMM
@The Moar You Know:
“I’ve defamed you for years now you should show how cool you are by taking my side in this.”
There was never a worse master nor a better slave than a conservative wingnut.
Colette
Anyone who has access to Trader Joe’s: their El Salvador Peaberry is bery bery good – smooth, medium bodied, ever so slightly sweet, works well both in the drip machine and as espresso, and is heaven with steamed milk or half-and-half. It’s especially nice if you hate sugar in your coffee but just don’t feel like dealing with the bitterness sometimes.
I will take Dunkin’ Donuts over Starbucks any day (in fact, I’ll take dirty dishwater over Starbucks) and am not ashamed to admit that I drink McD’s occasionally and like it just fine. It’s a matter of adjusting your expectations to the surroundings, and the big problem with Starbucks is that they set up the expectation that they’re really high-end, tasty, artisan coffee when in fact they’re mass-produced swill. Somewhere along the line they lost their way.
Skepticat
John, If the shaking stops after about twenty minutes, you may be doing it wrong. But glad you’re enjoying your new find.
The Tim Channel
Cafe du Monde is dangerous–not only have I gotten hooked on cafe au lait (but made with the Toddy system and Community Coffee, another result of hanging around New Orleans), but I never get on an airplane leaving NOLA without being covered with powdered sugar. Have you ever tried their beignet mix?
And don’t forget, for authentic succulence, it has to be raw sugar.
Damn, now I’m hungry.
d0n camillo
One nice thing about living in San Francisco is that it is really easy to get your hands on Irish or English tea bags and not have to drink that swill they serve at Peets. Maybe my East Coast palate is just too tender to appreciate it.
Nick
http://www.portorico.com/store/
Try some of the ‘in-house’ blends or just try a little of this and a little of that. They ship.
Have fun,
Nick in Florida
Oh and PS: agree about over-roasting at Starbucks; have never tried Peets’. Trader Joe’s has been OK for generic Columbian beans.
Polish the Guillotines
@James K. Polk, Esq.:
That just gave me a Berkeley flashback. Tivoli’s (if I’m remembering the name correctly). Trumpet Vine court and Walnut Square.
Best lesbian gelato around.
DonkeyKong
Bob Shieffer: What makes you think she’s a witch?
Gingrich: Well, she turned me into a newt!
Bob Shieffer: A newt?
Gingrich: [meekly after a long pause] … I got better.
Beltway Villagers: [shouts] Burn her anyway!
Colette
@Polish the Guillotines:
Vivoli’s. Gone, alas.
andrea
Illy is my employer’s house coffee, but it’s not major dick. Or mocca-java. How’s that for a whiny first world problem?
Polish the Guillotines
@Colette:
Vivoli’s! That’s it. Too bad. Seriously good stuff. Now if I can only convince Zachary’s to open up a pizza joint out in the hinterland of Solano county….
Mike in NC
We may well expect to see Gingrich and/or Cheney pontificating on Sunday morning TV every weekend from now until 2012. It’s what the Villagers want.
Colette
@Polish the Guillotines:
As hinterlands go, that’s not too hinterfied. At least you’re within weekend driving distance. And since food envy is one of the major subthemes of this blog today: at our office in Oakland, we alternate between Zachary’s and Arizmendi’s. Those vegetarian commies make a mean pizza.
@DonkeyKong:
FTW. I blow my nose at you, but in the most respectful possible way.
Dennis-SGMM
@Mike in NC:
The most sorry part of it all is that Cheney, who firmly maintained that he was a unique branch of the government, still receives bended knee treatment from both the Village and the GOP. If he gets a new set of batteries for his pacemaker then he’s a definite threat in ’12.
James K. Polk, Esq.
Arizmendi is the bastard child of the Cheeseboard.
The OG is way better.
Pennypacker
Good call on Peet’s.
It’s strrong alright, but I drink one large cup of it in the morning and that’s enough for the whole day.
Matt
I am eternally grateful for the burnt coffee found in the Bay Area. It’s the only reason I discovered home roasting. That and the guy at the flea market who inexplicably sold unburnt Harar. I’m looking at easily 100 empty plastic bags, which once contained coffee from Ethiopia, Kenya, Sumatra, Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador, Rwanda, Burundi, Australia, Yemen, Brazil, Colombia, etc. Good times.
Pennypacker
Look- I hate Starbucks. Peets tastes nothing like it.
Starbuck’s is the McDonald’s of gourmet coffee.
Bob In Pacifica
Out here in San Francisco I found that by drinking Peets I could finish my day’s work by ten a.m. Being the good civil servant that I was I had to switch to something that wouldn’t turn my pupils into pinpricks.
Polish the Guillotines
@Colette: When I lived in the People’s Republic, I was right around the corner from Salerno’s on Shattuck. Best flat pie. But man, I could sure use some Zack’s. There’s no Chi-style around here. (Ironically, there’s now at least two Peet’s.)
MazeDancer
Coffee roasters, like all artists, have a style. One person’s over roasted and burnt is another’s fierce and hearty. Peet’s is known for their style. (You choose the adjective.)
Several reviewers in the foodie world, with liberal bents, have suggested Intelligentsia Coffee as nectar of the gods stuff. They have shops in Chicago and now Venice, CA, but do big web/mail order. Being of the tea persuasion, thought it was good, but am no expert. Have gifted, coffee freaks raved.
http://www.intelligentsiacoffee.com/
Their web site is complex. So are their offerings.
The liberal part is they are direct trade merchants. They go find the small artisan, not rainforest harming growers, pay them a lot more, and get small batches when they’re in season.
LD50
You’re right. How could Peet’s coffee possibly compare to coffee made by a donut shop chain?
Anne Laurie
<blockquote>I like Mort quite a bit, and it’ll be interesting to watch him grapple with the issues surrounding his new job. I just got to the part when he saved the princess from her assassination. I like the princess.
AsiangrrlMN: Keep in mind that Pratchett’s daughter is named Rhianna. (No, I don’t know whether she’s called Kelli at home, but when Pratchett wrote MORT she would’ve been at the age when *every* girl wants a different name than the one her parents gave her.)
Which reminds me — if nobody’s already spoken up in favor of Pratchett’s Tiffany Aching trilogy (Wee Free Men, Hatful of Sky, and Wintersmith), they may be marketed as children’s books but then so is Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy. They’re also Discworld books, but if anyone’s looking for a “faster” way into Pratchett’s universe they might be a good starting point — less intricate, less joky, but just as well-written and entertaining. And an excellent introduction to Pratchett’s Discworld philosophy, which basically uses a god-free ethical foundation to underpin a pantheistic and occasionally god-riddled universe.
TenguPhule
The only thing is you need the audio version, otherwise you don’t get the correct impression of the Knackmacfeegles.
B
JimPortlandOR
John, you’re a caffeine pussy. Come to Portland and get some Stumptown beans (maybe they ship them?). You don’t know strong until you’ve gulped some 16 ouncers of pac. northwest coffee. Guaranteed to grow hair on your butt cheeks, even if you are female.
Be a man, and get the cure!
Peets is just burned beans.
DarrenG
Ye gods, yes, to the Tiffany Aching books!
He seems to have written them partly as his response to Harry Potter, and they’re wonderful.
Anne Laurie
TenguPhule, take my word: I am *descended* from a long line of nac Mac Feagles, who in our universe look a lot like Tommy Gavin’s family on RESCUE ME. Anyone who already knows why “Scotch Irish” is a ridiculous label for a dead serious ethnic/cultural tradition can do Big Rob Anybody’s voice without outside assistance.
Tom Levenson
@James K. Polk, Esq.: Late to the party, but grew up on Peet’s (that’s why I’m only 5′ 9″ though my mother promised me 6′ even). Must disagree re best brewed coffee. This is the best brewed coffee: 70% Top Blend, 30% French Roast. Known on the old 3X5 card file at Vine St. and/or Solano as the Lenway Blend, after my mother’s best friend Ann Lenway (may her memory be a blessing) who invented it, or at the Domingo St. Peet’s as the Levenson blend, also in the 3X5 storage module system, after my mother who refused to give her (true) BFF too much credit.
Of course, in the post Alfred Peet loss of moral compass, Top Blend has gone the way of the Irish Elk, so I’m forced now to drink 70% New Guinea Blend 30% French — which is damn good, but not quite the same. In the office coffee center machine I insisted we buy at the moment I became head of the MIT Science Writing program, the mixture of choice is 50% New Guinea/50% Italian roast, which is just enough less oily to avoid kerfluffling the machine and which is a good compromise for a consumer base that splits between espresso and brewed coffee. As for me — I go for the hammerhead: a long coffee + an espresso shot.
Sunday mornings, of course, are the time for Arabian Mocha Sanani in a press pot, than which no greater caffeine happiness mortal experience allows.
eastriver
Congrats on the move to Peet’s. Stumptown is about on par with Peet’s, although they don’t the same variety of beans. (At least in NYC.)
Become a Peetnik, JC. Check it out at the Peet’s site. It’s a great deal.
I’m a Berkeley native. Been sipping Peet’s since the mid-70’s. For the past six years I’ve had my Peet’s shipped to me every month. They roast the coffee usually no more than 2 days before they ship it to me. Out-fucking-rageous.
Burn the beans? Please, you nay-sayers. Surely you’re thinking of that crap they urinate at Starbucks.
(And I don’t know if someone corrected the spelling earlier in the thread, but the blend is Major Dickason’s)
Enjoy.
Bill E Pilgrim
Okay now try this on: I grew up with Peet’s coffee in the East Bay (of SF) and yes, it made anything else seem like water.
Now I live in France and pretty much all of the coffee I drink here make’s Peet’s taste like water. I was just back in the States and gravitated toward Peet’s because, well, it’s closer than anything else, but still.
Little known fact by the way for Peet’s afficionados: (from Peet’s entry in Wikipedia)
Peet’s was the original inspiration for now-rival Starbucks. The three founders of Starbucks knew Alfred Peet personally, founded Starbucks in Seattle, Washington, as kindred spirits, and bought the coffee beans for Starbucks directly from Peet’s during their first year of business in 1971.
Cheevans
My fellow Canadians will appreciate a Tim’s reference. That coffee is ingrained in us like hockey and ending sentences with ‘eh”. They’ve had had a hell of a time breaking into the north eastern us. I guess they haven’t tried the Bacon and cheese scone with their double double yet. Double Double and 2-4 are also Canada speak. Isn’t one of your regular commentators, Krista ? from the east coast? I’m sure she’ll back me up on this one.
Zuzu's Petals
Peet’s is my second choice when I can’t make it over to Old Soul.
Best coffee ever.
Still local, but soon online I think.
Wile E. Quixote
@Polish the Guillotines
That’s OK, just tell people that it wasn’t a “French” Press, it was a “Freedom” Press.
My preferred caffeine delivery vector is a Starbucks quad-shot venti mocha. I like to have one in the morning to wash down my morning dose of Adderall.
Oh, and I know that hating on Starbucks is de rigeur and ever so cool amongst the lumpenintelligentsia but shut the fuck up already, were it not for Starbucks none of those trendy little coffee shops where the lumpenintelligentsia gather to slam on Starbucks and buy your overpriced free-trade, fair trade, whatever the fuck trade beans would exist.
Wile E. Quixote
@Polish the Guillotines
Just say that it was a “Freedom” press and you’ll be OK in Red Amerika.
My preferred caffeine delivery system is a quad shot venti mocha from Starbucks, sans whip cream. It’s just the thing for washing down my morning dose of Adderall.
Has anyone drank percolated coffee lately? My Grandmother had a stove top percolator that she made coffee with and I remember that it smelled wonderful. Are percolators considered to be obsolete? Make magazine had an article in the last issue on how to make a siphon brewer with lab glassware, which was very cool and industrial looking, and supposedly siphon brewed coffee is the shit.
Wile E. Quixote
I’m fond of a Starbucks quad shot Venti mocha, sans whipped cream, as my morning caffeine delivery system. It’s tasty and helps wash down my morning dose of Adderall. If I can’t get one of those I just do an upside down espresso, which is kind of like an upside down margarita. You fill your mouth with grounds and then wrap it around the steam spigot on the espresso machine.
Wile E. Quixote
Hey John, have you ever thought of making your own Kopi Luwak by feeding Tunch raw coffee beans?
justme
Heh. You remind me of one time a client remarked that we made such great coffee that he had one cup and took two shits.
justme
Also, as far as the New Orleans coffee experience is concerned, there used to be a place on Decatur called Kaldi’s, in an old bank building. Roasted their beans in the middle of the room and made a disturbingly delicious iced coffee that would stand a spoon up from how sweet it was, and dissolve one from how strong.
Good times, good times.
aschup
I will second the Major Dickinson’s recommendations.
However, as a recent transplant to the Bay from my undergrad years in St. Louis, I can say that while I really like Peet’s, to my taste buds Kaldi’s (no relation to the New Orleans coffeehouse mentioned above) is a far superior cup. Perhaps I need a French press to even things out…
BethanyAnne
Gah! I had to leave Berkeley in January because I got seriously poor. Now I’m homesicker than ever >.< Got a very short contract offer in SF today. Pondering, pondering. I wanna go back home! /endrant
BethanyAnne
Oh, and for any of you new to Berkeley, two restaurants to try if you like Indian. Udupi Palace on University, and Viks down on 4th? 5th?
Did I mention homesick? :-)
chiggins
That’s purdy funny. Yeah it’s pretty good stuff. If you find yourself in PA, pick up some thick raw cream from the Amish and drop a dollop in there.
When they offer the Harar, git it.
Svensker
@Cheevans:
Don’t like Tim’s coffee, but their donuts are good. Especially like the maple frosted ones (make me homesick for Seattle and they’re GOOD), and the fruit bun ones that are so unlike anything in the States. Good donuts. Yum.
sloan
If you’re drinking Peet’s coffee, here’s an article I remember from the Atlantic food channel on how to brew it.:
“We recommend at least a full coffee measure (two tablespoons) per six fluid ounces of water for all brewing methods except espresso. For my morning press pot, I use two heaping American coffee scoops (about 4.5 tablespoons) of beans (20-22 grams) for 12 fluid ounces of hot water. ”
They like it very strong.
http://food.theatlantic.com/coffee-culture/dont-be-afraid-of-strong-coffee.php
Matt
@BethanyAnne: If you get that contract job, sometime try out the Udupi in Fremont. I asked the waiter there why it was so much better than Berkeley’s and he said point blank that it was because the recipes were changed for white people.
Alan in SF
I was going to suggest Peet’s, but was scared off by your “mild-medium” preference. Basically, there is Peet’s, and there is everything else.
There is no going back.