Coffee and Wine

Each time I go back home to Massachusetts, my mom and I visit a small wine barn in our little New England town. The wine store is always stalked as if they know I'm coming. The first time I walked in, a bottle of Samantha's Chardonnay (which is wicked good!) was on display in the front of the store... I'm telling you, this place is made for me.

While I was home a few weeks ago, I was browsing the wines and I found one called The Bean. It first caught my eye when I spotted two little coffee beans printed on the label.

After a month or so of waiting to try my wine, I finally popped the cork on my birthday in late October.

This wine is fermented in French oak barrels that first roasted coffee beans to add to the flavor of the wine. HOW AMAZING IS THAT?!

The wine is made from Pinotage grapes, South Africa's signature verity. It's a cross between Pinot Noir and Cinsaut verities. In this wine, the Pinot Noir flavors came through very strongly and the wine was extremely expressive of cherries, which disappointed me a bit because I was expecting a more smokey, coffee flavor. The coffee notes, however, were still present, just more muted than I would have hoped.

I'm not a big fan of Pinot Noir; it's too fruity. I prefer drier wines with a big bite. Regardless of personal preference, I think if this same technique was used with Cabernet Sauvignon or Shiraz, the coffee and mocha notes would have been been more pronounced because they would have had a more similar base to bounce off of. Instead, the coffee notes were in competition with the dominant cherry flavors. Similarly, The Bean is only fermented for three months, leaving a smooth and silky finish rather than building the tannins and further absorbing the hints the coffee and mocha from the barrel.

Though I would make some changes to please my palate, I was more than fine sipping this wine on my birthday. In fact, there was not one drop of wine or a single coffee ground left in the bottle.

Blind Dog Cafe: Florida Avenue near U Street

If I am going to walk through a torrential downpour for a cup of coffee, it better be good. Luckily, wading my way down U Street Sunday afternoon to make it to The Blind Dog Cafe was well worth the wet shoes.

The outside of the cafe is bland, reminiscent of a speakeasy with nothing to denote what's inside besides the small fold-up sign pictured above. While it may be lackluster, it perfectly compliments the interior space and the vibe the cafe works to create. Inside, big red light fixtures cast a quiet light over the tables and ottomans scattered throughout, creating the perfect environment for reading a book by yourself in the evening or gathering for Sunday lunch with friends.

After putting down my umbrella and shaking myself like a pup trying to dry, (fun fact: did you know dogs shake of 70% off water on their fur in 4 seconds? And here is a slow-mo video just to prove it!) I went up to the counter to order my drink. 

The baristas at Blind Dog were extraordinarily friendly and easy to talk to. I instantly felt comfortable asking questions to find out what the cafe is all about. The drink menu listed a single origin pour-over for $3; I inquired.

The barista told me that all of the coffee brewed at Blind Dog uses chemex brewing techniques. See that photo above? Wait, the photo above the one above... see the two hour-glass looking devices in the center? That is a chemex, which is used to brew coffee by (here is the simplified version) placing a filter in the top cone, wetting it, placing grounds in the presoaked filter, and then adding small amounts of hot water. While Blind Dog Cafe brews all their coffee in this "pour-over" fashion, it still didn't explain what "single origin" meant. The barista said that their regular house coffee is a mixture of coffee grounds, while a single origin pour means the coffee grounds are all of the same type. So that's what I ordered. They have two options for single origin coffee: Sumatra and Brazil. I asked the barista which he preferred and ended up with a perfectly brewed cup of Sumatra coffee to sit with while reading my book.

Rich and oily, I knew I made a perfect choice. The taste was not overwhelming, but well balanced so that one sensation or flavor-note didn't dominate. Sumatra is a medium brew and it definitely came through. It lacked the stringent, bitter qualities that many cringe at, but it did not lack any flavor. The coffee was served at the perfect temperature. I often complain that coffee is too hot and that when served near-boiling, it either burns your tongue, so you can't taste the drink, or your taste buds become overwhelmed by the heat and cannot detect the subtle flavors in the coffee. This cup was perfect and allowed each flavor to come through.

I added in a dollop of cream over at the serving cabinet, which was old and wooden and gave the whole place the vibe of an old, slightly haunted (in a beautiful way), southern home.

Blind Dog also sells a variety of baked goods, sandwiches, and salads. On Twitter, Blind Dog always tweets photos of scones that look so good and make me want to eat my computer screen. On Sunday, they only had one type of scone to try: basil. I had to get it. The first thing I said when I took a bite, completely unfiltered, was "Oh yeah... that's strange..." But I said it with a smile because, while it was odd tasting, it wasn't bad. Just a very interesting flavor combination.

It was a bit too salty though and I think next time I'll have one of these chocolate chip cookies instead, YUM!

Office Coffee

Today I will answer the question that every working person asks themselves around 9:17 each morning, why is office coffee so bad? It is annoyingly so, because everyday on your way to work you have the ongoing debate in your head whether to stop in that Starbucks you pass and spend $2-$6 or to bank the cash, suck it up, and drink that office muck.

If you're frugal like me, you will usually decided that the latte isn't worth it, and you are too tired to enjoy it anyway, so you might as well stick with the muck.

But why is office coffee so bad? Coffee is coffee is coffee, isn't it? And if that's true, why does my office alone have 3 different coffee makers? And why does everyone in the office have their own preference on which one is the best?

This morning, I used the Keurig. There is only one type of Keurig cup I can drink without wanting to spit the coffee right back out and it's the Green Mountain Coffee Extra Bold "Dark Magic". 

It's the best of the worst for the simple reason of it being the strongest in both flavor and caffeine content. To get a good, or at least semi-drinkable cup of coffee from a Keurig, make sure to choose either the small cup setting of the 4oz or 6oz cup.  Again, this keeps the coffee strong and doesn't water it down. Out of all the Keurig cups we have there are two that tie for my least favorite: Green Mountain Coffee's Mocha Nut Fudge and Colombian Fair Trade Select, and let's face it the second one I only hate because I work for a Republican firm (just kidding that is not why).

The Mocha Nut Fudge sounds delicious, and for one reason or another the guys in the office tend to prefer it, but every time someone brews a cup I can smell it down the hall and it's dreadful. It smells like somebody found a chocolate Easter bunny a year later and lit it on fire and then tried to put the fire out by pouring a pot of three-week-old coffee on it. The Colombian Fair Trade I dislike not because it is a lighter coffee (the breakfast blend is even a lighter roast and I prefer it, I would say it is on par with the Dark Magic if you favor a lighter flavor) but because it has a premature taste, almost as if the coffee beans were never roasted. Choose your Keurig cup wisely.

But when all is said and done, we still ask ourselves the question, why do we have to choose between bad, terrible, and mediocre coffee in the office?

First and foremost, CLEAN YOUR COFFEE MAKER (says lifehacker). Think about how many years your company has had that same coffee maker, how many pots or cups are brewed each and every day. When you make a pot of coffee at home do you wash it after? I sure hope so! The office coffee maker needs to be cleaned as well to get rid of the old crud and buildup of year-old coffee grounds.

Second, check the expiration date. Coffee doesn't stay good forever, not matter how well packaged and especially if it is not stored in the fridge/freezer.

Third, that's just the way it is. Once you have cleaned the coffee maker and checked the expiration date, it is most likely the coffee you brew in the office will still taste horrible. Because that's the way the world works. So plug your nose, bottoms up, and sucks it down as fast as you can because office coffee is simply poor quality and Geoffrey James, marketing blogger for CBS tells why:

Contrary to popular belief, coffee is not bitter. It is supposed to be a naturally sweet beverage. However, the way it is usually prepared tends to concentrate the tanins in the coffee, which makes it unnaturally bitter. Remove these tannins and you get a good cup of coffee.

Tannins come from five sources:

• Exposure to air. The more the beans are exposed to air and light, the more they begin to break down, turning the natural sweetness into tannins. If coffee is already ground, that process is accelerated.
• Brewing residue. Most brewing methods cause tannins to be deposited on the brewing mechanism where they're transferred into the coffee. Plastic and metal is porous, so even if you scrub it, there's always residue.
• The brewing process. If the water is not hot enough, the coffee flavor is lessened while the tannins are transferred into the water. Most coffee makers don't heat up the water sufficiently to make a good cup.
• The filtering process. If the filter is the wrong porousness and not designed to absorb tannins, it will pass them through into the coffee. Many filters just filter out particulate matter and don't absorb the tannins.
• Time after brewing. If there are tannins in the coffee, they'll spread throughout the coffee, making it increasingly bitter over time. That's why reheated coffee -- or coffee that's been sitting in the pot for an hour or more -- usually tastes so wretched.

The worst-tasting of coffee is stale, pre-ground, brewed in a dirty coffee machine, with a reusable filter, and then has been sitting in the pot for over an hour. That's pretty much what corporate America drinks every day. No wonder so many people are in a sour mood.