Last year I experience the Starbucks gingerbread latte for the first time. As much as I rag on their coffee I have to admit that they can come up with lattes and macchiatos that will knock your proverbial socks off. The gingerbread latte is one that I like a lot.

Thing is, I can’t get them anymore. They closed the Starbucks locally that was good and left the one where all the really lazy people work open. Not sure how that worked but it did. Anyway..I figured it was time to learn how to make my own copy cat gingerbread latte.
If …read more

Twas the night before National Coffee Day
And all through the house
Not a creature was stirring
Because we usually drink coffee black ’round here.
The 29th was, in fact National Coffee Day and if you follow me on Twitter (and if you don’t you certainly should Marye Audet) you know that I had a very ….very …special visitor. Yes…it was……
Coffee Claus!
Oh….You know, here in Texas we require alternative methods of transportation  for Coffee Claus…Need a closer look?

If you haven’t noticed it is August. Hot. Dry with intermittent bouts of humid. It is like the entire summer just collapses on top of  Texas in August.

And no matter how cool you are..you just gotta stay cool. Here is a great way to do it. This iced coffee recipe is worth buying old fashioned soda fountain glasses for. Seriously good. It was a big hit at the tea room.  It calls for 4 oz of espresso. Here is a GREAT place to use that JazzyBird that is still in the freezer.
Mocha Chiller

4 oz espresso, chilled
3/4 cup  coffee  …read more

I swore it would not happen. I really hate McDonalds. It is not my kind of place. It is not a happy place. Not for me, anyway. If I am going to do fast food (RARE!) then a quick run by Whataburger or Sonic is my choice.
But I just read that the roaster supplying McDonalds with their espresso coffee blend is Distant Lands in Tyler, Texas. Distant Lands is the same eco-friendly roaster that is supplying Panera. The beans are not organic but I believe that they are Fair Trade coffee beans.

Anyway, I like Panera coffee. That means that more …read more

I was not sure what to expect when I emailed Shari of JazzyBird coffee. Normally I don’t request samples of a product to review, people just send them. But this was so intriguing that I could not resist. From the moment I read about this product I knew that it was something I wanted to try.
Problem was, or is, that it is only available in Louisiana and a few places in Mississippi. Would they ship?
You bet they would!

In fact, almost before I had the post published that announced I had found this intriguing item and was …read more

Imagine heading to your freezer, grabbing a container, microwaving it and having a steaming, perfect espresso within seconds.

Well, you can.  JazzyBird Coffee is picking up  the hole in the coffee market, so to speak.  Consumers who want their specialty coffees can have them at home without a  lot of equipment or expense.  A freezer and a microwave will just about do it.
JazzyBird makes espresso shots that you keep in your freezer and microwave as needed.  They cost works out to about 45 cents a shot.  They even have a decaf version.
The coffee, out of Louisiana, is being carried by a …read more

The espresso roast from Silver Joe’s was my favorite of the coffee that they sent to me.  It was smooth and dark, without scorching or bitterness.
The beans are dark and shiny, small and plump, without a lot  of broken or cracked coffee beans in the mix.  The aroma was about average on opening the bag, deep coffee scent but without any depth or complexity..you smell coffee.  Which is good, I mean you wouldn’t want to open a bag of espresso and smell hay, or asparagus, or something, right?
But I mean that there were no secondary notes.  Just coffee.

The coffee brewed …read more

If you remember that Irish Spring commercial then you are old.
I remember it.
Ahem….Anyway the University of Barcelona has done a study on the effects of a strong cup of coffee on men and women.
For the study they used 668 volunteers.  This is odd.  Why not 670?  665? Nope.  668.  Healthy volunteers.
And I think it was weird they felt the need to say “healthy volunteers.”  I mean who chooses sick people to test coffee?

 
Love your coffee? Gotta have your lattes and espressos?  Well then, you might need something like this to make life bearable.
You know you want this.  You know….I want this!

 
Hmmm….
South Africa has created a new product that is it terming red espresso.  Apparently it is pretty good because it won the title of Best New Product in the Coffee Association of America’s Specialty Beverages category this month. Red Espresso has only been on the American market for eight months.