Are you arguing with yourself about coffee and espresso drinks? I think it’s ok to appreciate all different types of caffeinated drinks. We mostly drink lattes but I enjoy a frothy sweet coffee based boba drink or a nice pour over too. I enjoyed many sorta awful drinks from Dunkin, sweet too much milk drinks from Coffee Bean and questionable coffee from corner bodegas in NYC.
J Gold is unparalleled. His reviews stand the test of time.
Not at PRD but the food may reappear in another form in an undisclosed nearby location at in undisclosed near future time frame. .
Not arguing just appreciating “fancy” coffee and these traditional espresso based drinks.
It’s like burgers right…you can appreciate different burgers at different prices, different styles, etc.
For me and for most of my life I had no idea coffee and espresso based drinks can be so damn good. I don’t mind it’s slightly more in price. It tastes better and made with skill/technique.
But on the other hand if I am traveling or I need something quick than Dunkies or Sbux will do
I miss Portola and Kean in OC
This is amazing. Thanks.
The Rolling Stone profile of Dr Dre written in 1993
Damn, i felt like i was there in Leimert park. His writing style was propulsive.
Gold was talking specifically about coffee in the morning. I’ve been making my morning pot from dark-roast beans a la France, Italy, or Peet’s (i.e. second-wave) since the 70s, and to me, that’s coffee that tastes like coffee. In the afternoon or after dinner, a third-wave espresso can be delightful.
Idk, i can’t do it. I can tolerate peets but even done well it’s just too charry. Granted i get your point i don’t want the other extreme either a lightly roasted Ethiopian that tastes like tea , Apricots and 2004. I remember Donald Shoenholt of Gillies coffee used to post on alt.coffee and he once suggested recreating that 195o’s American style moka-java coffee by blending an East African + Indonesian with just 10% monsooned Malabar. So i do that on occasion. Makes a great cup any time of day.
To recreate 1950s American coffee, get a percolator and a can of Folger’s. Or make a pot of drip coffee and boil it for half an hour.
I’d been drinking second-wave coffee daily for over 20 years before the third wave came along.
The first wave of American coffee culture was probably the 19th-century surge that put Folgers on every table, and the second was the proliferation, starting in the 1960s at Peet’s and moving smartly through the Starbucks grande decaf latte, of espresso drinks and regionally labeled coffee. We are now in the third wave of coffee connoisseurship, where beans are sourced from farms instead of countries, roasting is about bringing out rather than incinerating the unique characteristics of each bean, and the flavor is clean and hard and pure.
Ya, no.
For me, a medium roast Colombian in a Moka pot strikes the perfect balance between “coffee that taste like coffee” and those fruity third-wave notes. Also love the body of coffee brewed in a Moka pot.
I know you guys probably know this, but for any others following along: a pinch of salt can do a lot to rescue bad coffee (office coffee, hotel lobby coffee, etc.). It helps rein in the bitter/charred flavors. It will not magically make a delicious cup, but I was surprised at the difference when I first tried it.
(Also, a perfect case study for the use of salt to develop flavors in cooking.)
A word from coffee world darling James Hoffman and cooking world darling Alton Brown.
me too… I’ve got a 9 cup Moka pot that I use each morning to make one very large mug of coffee). I have a Blue Bottle single-origin subscription and the combo works great. This is the only cup of coffee that I drink during the day (granted, it’s a large cup) and I prefer that it’s one that appeals to my taste.
Always a favorite. Cafe Graffeo north beach . Since 1935 . Second wave . Brewed in mocha pot .
Yeah, the “second wave” of American coffee was basically what people in Italy and France had been drinking for generations.
I used to buy Graffeo when I didn’t have time to schlep to Peet’s, which was only in Berkeley until the mid-80s, after Jerry Baldwin bought it.