Filed under: 2nd cup of the day, bodum, coffee, cup, follow-up cup, coffee
January 6, 2011 • 11:26 am 0
coffee + temporary disability
here is the thing.
i can’t carry my bodum from the kitchen to the room where i do most of my hanging out. this is because i am using crutches. when you use crutches, you are not supposed to lean on them so that they hold you up under your armpit. according to one of the nurses who attended to me after my recent foot surgery, that is a sure way to get badass nerve damage.
no, it’s all in the hands and arms. so you get a good workout whenever you crutch.
but that means that hands cannot be used to carry things. with one exception as follows.
where you grab onto the bar you can hold a handle. as in, a bag handle. a shopping bag, for example. nothing to clunky because it bangs into the crutches which sucks.
my idea is to make more coffee and put it into a thermos which will, itself, but placed into such a handled bag. yeah.
here is a great example of what crutchers have to go through. it is entitled “day 7.1 crutch coffee”.
January 6, 2011 • 10:05 am 0
starbucks redesign
i support starbucks’ decision to redesign their logo. i only wish there were no siren, as the siren bothers me. but given that this is how they want it, i like the new spacious, letterless look. i like that they are doing away with the huge “dated” mugs and replacing with more refined, upscale-seeming china. i hope they plan to provide china cups and saucers and not mugs. whatup with mugs anyway.
i hope they will follow my advice and get rid of all the other crap they sell there too. it’s like a bed, bath & beyond store. are they going to sell brooms and vacuum cleaners too? focus on the bean, that’s what i say.
my next question is: what will they do with all of the mugs?
answer: donate to people who don’ t have a mug, or who don’t have enough mugs.
i am sure: that there will be people who try to snatch these mugs up and hoard them, or sell them on ebay to other 90s starbucks mug hoarders.
to be sure: i love the idea of the walk-through store.
also: i want the short size to make its way back onto the menu.
but: i don’t have the energy to make a corporate-level complaint.
Filed under: cup, customer service, starbucks, coffee
February 13, 2010 • 8:16 pm 0
taste problem
maybe it’s my sinuses. maybe it’s my new hygienic habit of scraping my tongue with a tablespoon upon waking in the ayurvedic fashion. i don’t know why, but i am having trouble tasting my coffee lately. this is especially troubling in light of (1) my fear of losing my sense of smell/taste and going mad, and (2) the fact that my beloved has been grinding my coffee fresh for me almost every morning.
this has to stop immediately. my coffee enjoyment is too important to be impaired for whatever reason.
Filed under: coffee, cup, enjoyment, first cup of the day, coffee
January 23, 2010 • 1:34 pm 0
upscale: careful what you wish for
regarding their wish to be thought of as truly upscale, some time ago i advised starbucks to stop selling tedious food, games, stuffed animals, cheap espresso machines and other crap and stick to coffee. 
i suggested that a truly upscale cafe experience should include (1) a venue that is much more minimally designed, (2) the sale of unflavored coffee or espresso drinks only (i.e. no tea, cider or milk shakes posing as coffee drinks) (3) without the presence of such condiments as sugary syrup, sprinkles, powders or milk that is not from healthy, happy cows. just coffee. i suggested that charging more money for this experience would help consumers to feel that they were engaging in a truly upscale experience and would, over time, develop a consciousness centered in this kind of experience. the upscale consciousness. that is what starbucks was wanting when they introduced their upscale instant coffee. read about it here.
a few weeks ago i was looking for the tea lounge on seventh ave in da slope. why? my feeling is: their coffee is good enough, and i sought shelter from the cold and rain. i’d had enough of the malodorous basement religious activity that i had been doing with my partner but wanted to wait for her so we could walk home together. so i checked my palm centro and found that the seventh ave tea lounge had been closed. somewhat disheartened, i sought another alternative.
i found a place, but my internal coffee guidance system informed me that it was not acceptable. it had a brightly-lit, large glass showcase full of gleeful cookies and cakes; it was not the proper choice. i felt sad. despairing, i looked across the street and saw something worth investigating. it was: a cafe i had not seen before. it was called: cafe grumpy. or, in my mind, “grumpy’s.”
wifiless coffee spot
it was promising if only for the name. i was hoping for a moody, dimly-lit, reflective, leave-me-alone kind of place with ambient music or silence, no chatty park slope moms, strollers, healthy snacks or cell phones a-blazing.
i found a gorgeously minimal situation. excrutiatingly minimal. a single square wooden bar/table with one or two coffee drinkers drinking out of appropriate cup-and-saucer espresso vessels while diligently reading the new york times. i was excited.
until i saw the menu. and it was a menu, not just a chalkboard. there were exotic beans from here and there and espresso shots cost more than $3. i really just wanted a cup of coffee and was not in the mood for a “tasting” situation so i thanked them and left.
ironically, i was a little too grumpy to enjoy the pretentious minimalism of grumpy’s. that does not mean that i will not go back another day, perhaps on a mental health day, and drink too much espresso.
click here for news of grumpy’s imminent arrival
click here to see the finished venue (this one is in park slope but there are other locations. the “roastery” is located on meserole ave in greenpoint, where i lived in 1987 when it was a depressing hell hole of a neighborhood accessed only by a filthy, creaky, hot, infrequent-running L train*)
a good thing: striking interior
another good thing: no wifi
a bad thing: a disturbing, diverting focus on tea
another bad thing: the crema and foam of espresso drinks seem to be formed into cutesy heart shapes.
* regarding the l train of my greenpoint period (1987-90?), according to my research, the majority of trains that went into service in 1969 were not replaced until 2002-03. you think it’s uncomfortable when you get stuck in a non-air conditioned car in july? ha! that’s what it was like in every car, every day back in the day. today’s l trains are a ride in a bmw in comparison. i think this could be said of most other trains except for the a. it seemed to have good air conditioning even back in the day.
Filed under: cafe_grumpy, coffee, cup, espresso, hand-crafted, menu, precious, pretentiousness, regular, starbucks, stupid things, tasting, tea lounge, coffee
January 21, 2010 • 4:35 pm 0
3x
today i drank 3 bodums of coffee. half decaf, half regular. the last bodumful was freshly ground and so good that i am considering notching up my daily coffee requirements to include freshly ground.
my heart is pounding and i am wishing i could keep going. do i dare?
rationalization: it’s really like drinking 1.5 cups of regular coffee and 1.5 cups decaf. not so much.
often when i drink multiple bodums of coffee, the second is inferior and i think, i didn’t really need this. but this time, the enjoyment is escalating. i am truly tempted to form another bodum and stir up the muddy goodness with a chopstick and wait for it to ripen.
some spontaneous coffee poetry:
you are the coffee flower of my heart
you, glass thing of wonder
i stir you gently and wait and wait and ask my partner susan, do you think the coffee is ready? what is the temperature going to be today?
now all that remains is the late afternoon sun, steelish sky and cup with a layer of sadness on the bottom
sad because i want it and, at the same time, know it is full of grounds. which i don’t want.
Filed under: 2nd cup of the day, bodum, coffee, cup, decaf, decaffeinated beverage, enjoyment, first cup of the day, coffee
