October 2009

No, you’re not imagining things.

This is Weasel Coffee from ThinkGeek.com.  Supposedly the raw beans are eaten by a type of weasel in Vietnam and then puked up, collected, and roasted for your drinking pleasure.

This is a rather special review as:

1) My friend Tim had to talk me into it.

2) We recorded the little adventure.

So instead of writing about it, I present it here as a podcast.  Is Weasel Puke Coffee the best tasting coffee in the world, as some purport?

Listen and find out:  Weasel Puke Coffee

I messed this coffee up!  Darn it!

Well, I don’t know for sure, because I’m still letting it steep in the French Press.  But I goofed and didn’t boil enough water, and didn’t realize that until I’d already started pouring it in.  So I quickly boiled some more and added it … which usually gives coffee the taint of what I call “dilution tang.”  In essence, it just went from fresh coffee to the equivalent of instant coffee.

We’ll see though.  I’ll subtract any negative tang away from the review.

It should be ready now…

Okay, I poured my cup.  Taking a taste.  And…

Yes, I messed it up.  I taste the tang of dilution as well as a hint of staleness.  The first one is my fault, and the second one is the risk you get when you go with a pre-ground pre-packaged coffee.  It probably wasn’t stale when they sent it to me, but truth be told, this has been sitting in my inbox for quite a while.

Also, Big City Coffee offers this blend as fresh roasted unground beans.

According to their website, this is what you should expect:  “This mellow blend delivers a flavor and aroma that will have you snapping your fingers and movin’ to the groove. The lightly spiced African beans are nicely balanced by the mild Latins. If this was a Martini, it would be shaken, not stirred. We hand select these beans and lovingly artisan roast them in small batches weekly.”

This is a laid back coffee – not quite the light flavor of Kona, it is more spicy and complex – I detect a fairly high acid spike, and a very pleasant dusky wood smoke infusion.  My impression is this would be a good beat poetry coffee, a relaxed yet jazzy combo to fuel some serious art.

Kind of like, in fact, the spunky retro-art on the package label.

Which makes me wonder, did I get that image from the coffee flavor, or subliminally from the packaging?  Hmmm.

To sum up, while I did botch the brewing, I still enjoyed the coffee, and it gave me a good idea of how yummy you can expect the freshly ground version to be.

I’ll call this groovy by default.  I’d be happy to drink it again.

I have no issues with the FCC’s new guidelines on disclosure for bloggers.  Coffee companies send me coffee to review here.  Some coffee I pay for but most I don’t.

If you see a savage review of an awful coffee (there hasn’t been many) it was a coffee that I paid for.  You don’t see them for coffee that was gifted to me because if I dislike it, I don’t review it.  It’s a fine line to walk, but … you don’t take a gift from someone then turn around and then bite them.  That just not cool.

I’m glad to say that I have never really hated a coffee that a roaster has given me.  So there’s never been a situation that I didn’t warn people away from awful coffee.

Sounds like I’m leading up to something bad, doesn’t it?  Actually, I’m not.  This coffee is wonderful.  If it wasn’t, I wouldn’t be reviewing it.

This organic blend from Big City Coffee is a good morning or even all day coffee.  Because of that, it would make a kick-ass office coffee, or a perfect choice for a small cafe to use as their “standard” regular coffee.  It’s a strong, bold, city ++ roast with a nice and complex flavor featuring walnut and pecan notes.  The body is medium, lively, and has a good bite to it, but it’s not bitter.  It’s also fresh, as – unlike the prepackaged coffees this company also sells – this is fresh roasted three times a week in small batches, and sent out immediately.

That is definitely the way to do it.

I would place this as a high-standard everyday coffee and give it the official stamp of groovy.  Good stuff.  I like it!