Gourmet Coffee: Do You Know What You’re Missing?
Gourmet Coffee Is Worth It’s Weight in Gold
If you’re one of the many who believe that gourmet coffee houses like Starbucks and Caribou are only for the haughty or those who don’t care about throwing money away, you don’t know what you’re missing. I too used to be one of those folks who scoffed at Starbucks and all gourmet coffee houses, and then one day when my wife ordered me a Frappucino my eyes were forever opened.
Eating Crow Never Tasted So Good
To completely understand how much crow I had to eat, you would have had to seen the look on my face when my wife walked into the house carrying a foo-foo gourmet coffee drink called a frappucino. I flat out told her that there was no way I was going to consume that foo-foo gourmet coffee drink and that I could very well go get a cappuccino at the local gas station and it would be just as good. However, after my wife told me how much this foo-foo gourmet coffee drink cost, I decided that I’d better drink up because there was no way I was going to throw almost $5 down the drain.
So there I was, taking my first sip of a gourmet coffee product and to my chagrin, it tasted great. At that point, I realized that you never really know how bad cheap coffee products taste until you try a gourmet coffee treat. And from the look on my wife’s face, she knew that I knew and she wasn’t going to let me live it down.
A Menu Full of Treasures
Later that week, I went to the local Starbucks and bought another gourmet coffee treat. To my delight, I liked it just as much as I had liked the drink my wife had brought home. From that point on, I was hooked.
Holding Ground
Now don’t get me wrong, when I want a plain old cup of coffee I still would rather hit the local Dunkin Donuts or the corner McDonald’s. However, when I’m in the mood for a specialty drink, those foo-foo gourmet coffee drinks I used to make fun of are something I just can’t live without.
So here’s the bottom line – if you’re like I was, making fun of the long lines at the local Starbucks, don’t knock it till you try it. You may find gourmet coffee is very much to your liking and well worth the price.
Comments
Great article...now we'll need a couple more resources. First we need some fresh gourmet coffee Next we'll need a very special secret coffee recipe...enjoy.
Posted by: Sherrill | May 27, 2006 2:21 AM
we are great coffee lovers but certainly cannot endorse Starbucks in the USA or the UK. They seem to forget to put the coffee in! Our Kitchen Aid capucino machine leaves Starbucks tasteless
Posted by: angela sumeray | May 31, 2006 4:42 AM
All of that commerical and machine-made foo-foo is nonsense, Here's my own gourmet coffee recipe, which my friends call the best coffee in the Southwest:
NEEDED:
*Organically-grown French or Italian Roast from a Health Foods store (coffee is in the top 3 foods for pesticides otherwise)
*Plastic or metal #4 cone w/unbleached filter
*Raw, organically-produced honey or agave nectar
*Cream or 1/2 and 1/2 (Goat's is the easiest to digest)
Pour 8oz. boiling, purified (yep!) H20 over 2 TBSP of the coffee. Sweeten liberally, and lighten to taste. Sip in the shade of a tree or in your reclining chair.
Go to Heaven.
Posted by: Eroc | June 2, 2006 9:29 AM
Your Frappuccino has between 290 and 550 calories, mostly sugar (up to 92 carbs!) but a whopping amount of fat too. The website says that frappuccinos are not milk based and so there's no significant difference if you order skim or soy milk. Their other coffee drinks are in the range of 200-500 plus calories even using skim milk.
I've seen taste tests where plain brewed Starbucks coffee did beat out other brands in a taste test, but home-brewed Folgers was a close second. Drink what you want, but know what you paying for -- and what you're getting.
Posted by: MJ | June 30, 2006 9:02 AM