Cofflogger

  My first reference frame for outstanding coffee is a great roast from Coffee Labs Roasters in Tarrytown called Colombian Federico Ceballos - Lactic Fermentation Process. Made at home after fresh grinding, in aeropress, cafe americano style. Black, no sugar as always. The flavor is amazing.  Best coffee I remember ever having. (Granted, I don't do this for a living so my experience is limited.) I don't know exactly what I'm tasting, but I love it. The label describes it as milk chocolate, plum, lime. I kinda get some chocolate and something citrusy, something fruity maybe, and more. But I can only identify those specifics when prompted by the description.  In general the coffee I make with aeropress is going to be better than what I get at a coffee shop from the espresso machine if I start with a good bean. I assume most coffee shops are using a general purpose dark roasted blend to cover all the myriad bar requests - espresso, americano, macciato, latte, iced, hot, fla...

I am about one year from retirement and looking forward to a time when I can finally relax and travel. In my thirty years as a teacher I've hardly had a moment where teaching wasn't in the front of my mind. I just have that kind of personality or mental illness where I can't stop thinking about, planning, researching, worrying about my job. But that's a story for another day. Lets talk about coffee. I honestly don't remember a time when I did not drink coffee. I've joked that my mom gave it to me in a bottle when I was an infant, but it's not really that far fetched. From my earliest years I remember drinking coffee. My mother never served anything but the instant kind, which probably ruined my palate, along with the generous milk and excessive sugar that was added to it. I never gave much thought to coffee flavor. It was always more of a caffeine delivery system and as long as it wasn't awful or undrinkable I was ok with it.  And then Starbucks happened...