Tue, 14 Nov 2006 15:57:00
Coffee pod of the day - Gourmet Cafe Limited Edition Tanzania Peaberry
Today’s coffee is Gourmet Cafe Limited Edition Tanzania Peaberry. Unwieldy name, awesome coffee. You may be asking, what the hell is a peaberry? Well…
On rare occasions, a coffee bean will have only one inside segment. This tiny bean is called a peaberry. Grown on the high slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro, the Tanzania Peaberry is full-bodied with distinct aroma and is known for it’s richness and complexity.
Pods: Typical Gourmet Cafe. Good seams, thin filter material, packed well. I believe it’s a 10 gram pod, but I don’t have a scale to be sure. Good extraction.
Taste: Yum. Bright. That’s the first thing that hit me. Bright, which means acidic but not in a bad way...it enhances the first flavor in your mouth. Then you get the darkness of the roasted beans, then a deeper earthy flavor, and finally a brighter, lighter sort of clean coffee/caramel flavor as you swallow. There’s a hint of some sort of fruity flavor as well, like maybe dark cherries only not as sweet. It’s just really damn good. It smells great too. Buy some.
Yesterday I mentioned a mess with some pods. This is that mess.
I ordered some Java Podz brand pods from CoffeeGiant.com. They sell them loose, so you can mix & match. I got some Ecuador Galapagos, Highlander Grog and Ecuador Puyango pods. These are what they call SERC coffee.
SERC is Socially and Environmentally Responsible Coffee which is a combination of being organically-grown, providing adequate shade and shelter to birds, and being purchased from the farming cooperatives at fair trade prices (25-45% above regular natural coffee prices).
I thought “Fine. If I can get some great coffee and help a poor Ecuadoran farmer make a better wage at the same time, I’ll buy your hippy coffee.” Boy was THAT a mistake. EVERY SINGLE ONE - and I ordered six of each - is stuck to the seam of the bag it is sealed in. The pods themselves were sealed into the edge of the bag. Three of them ripped apart and were unusable. The rest are missing enough of the edge that they don’t seal up in the pod brewer and that means water goes by the pod instead of through the pod. Absolutely useless to me.
See what happens when you have a bunch of hippies running a coffee manufacturing commune? No damn quality control. No more SERC coffee for me, ever. I’ve bought Fair Trade coffee pods from other makers and they not only tasted good but were well-made. I guess the SERC people don’t really care about the end product.
I don’t blame CoffeeGiant.com. They didn’t make them...everything else I got from them is great. Just stay away from the SERC pods.
Posted by JimK at 03:57 PM on November 14, 2006
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Comments:
#2 Posted by Ryley R. Hayes 
on 11/14 at 07:37 PM -
Hey Jim,
I’ve been looking at getting a pod brewer, since it’d be a good fit for me in my dorm room.
What I wanted to know is about how much coffee these things make?
Also, in case you missed it in the Wine post, pick up a bottle of Beaujolais Noveau. You want to get the newest bottles, and this seasons product is released for shipping on thursday (French Law actually prohibits selling it until the third thirsday of november...) so it will probably be in stores by the weekend.
#3 Posted by Rann Aridorn on 11/15 at 01:08 AM -
I guess hippies should stick to making juice and ice cream, harder to fuck up…
#4 Posted by JimK on 11/15 at 02:24 AM -
Ryley - it totally depends on what machine you buy. The Senseo will let you choose between 4 oz and 8 oz. and the Supreme model will let you choose 10 oz. The Simplehuman gives you 5 oz. and 8 oz. The Bunn MyCafe is the king of pod brewers, both in extraction quality, features and price.
If you can afford it, the Bunn is the shit. It uses almost any size pod, it sucks every bit of flavor out of the pods and it brews from 4 to 12 oz, your choice. I sort of wish I bought one, even though I love my Simplehuman a40.
Here’s the price breakdown:
Senseo - $55.99
Senseo Supreme - $129.99
Simplehuman A40 - $129.95
Bunn My Cafe - $229.95
Given that list, I’d start with a basic Senseo and beat it up until it breaks down, make sure you like it. Then move up to a better model.
#5 Posted by Ryley R. Hayes on 11/15 at 04:15 AM -
Thanks. It generally sucks living on a college campus if you like coffee. I’ve basically switched to tea, because the cafeterias coffee tastes like they make it with dry leaves, tree bark, and cigarette butts. It’d be nice to have my own brewer that isn’t a pain in the ass, and have coffee that doesn’t taste like buttmud.
While I know a thing or two about wine, if you ever want to know about beers (like, beer-snob beers) let me know. That’s my stuff. Granted, my bottle of Unibroue is next to a 30-rack of natty ice… whatever.
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#1 Posted by Astronomizer
on 11/14 at 06:42 PM -
I’ve been drinking Tanzania Peaberry now for the last year. It really is good---I love the Kona Peaberry but it is WAY too expensive. However I can’t bring myself to buy one of these pod coffee makers--I use a french press and a burr grinder and love them. I also live in the middle of nowhere and buy coffee beans in 5 lb. bags. I guess my point is that the Peaberry coffees really are superior. I’m not a coffee snob by any means--but everyone should at least try the Peaberries!