The wonderful folks at California Coffee Roasters provided me with a very wide range of samples, and today I picked one at random.

Caramel Nut. I like caramel, I like nuts, and I love coffee. This has potential. I’m going to go brew a cup of it now.

(time passes)

I’m back, coffee mug in hand. It smells like candy, which to me is not bad because I’m notorious for my sweet tooth. The taste … is flavored coffee. Well, yes. Of course. What did I expect, it to be magically not-flavored?

I’ll not judge a flavored coffee against non-flavored coffees, just like I wouldn’t compare a flavored malt beverage to a beer. They are two different animals. So…

This Caramel Nut is very good. The caramel taste rides high on the palate, surfing over the top of a smooth, well balanced coffee blend. As the taste fades, the last thing to bloom is a toasty harvest grain flavor, with maybe a hint of almond. So the coffee itself is sandwiched in a way, between caramel on one side and the nut on the other.

One thing I have noticed, is that if you are going to drink a flavored coffee, enjoy it while it’s hot. As it cools the flavor deteriorates rapidly, much faster than a non-flavored coffee. The sweetness breaks down and a unpleasant bitterness begins to bloom. That’s not just for this Caramel Nut. I’m making a broad, generalized sweeping comment covering flavors A-Z from any coffee roaster you’d care to name.

As for this one in particular, I’d have to say for a flavored coffee, it’s pretty darn groovy.

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Generally speaking, the people who harvest the coffee beans in the various nations where it’s grown, make barely enough money with a day’s labor to buy one cup of coffee in the USA.

On the upside, though, they get all their coffee for free.  Now that’s what I call a perk!

(No pun intended.)

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I didn’t go into this one automatically thinking it’s crap.

Wal-Mart’s “Great Value” generic products are usually high quality. Their bottled water is perfectly good, and their cereals, breads, and canned goods sometimes equal or surpass the name brands. So I thought, let’s give one of their coffees a shot. Who knows, I may be surprised.

So early this morning, before the kids were awake, I brewed a cup.

Notice it says 100% Arabica? That should count for something, right? They also had a French Roast that said it was 100% Arabica, but then they had a can of “100% Columbian” that stated nothing of the sort. Which means, of course, it’s not 100% Arabica. Which means it’s cut with Robusta beans.

Robusta beans are evil. EVIL.

So I take my first sip of Great Value 100% Arabica and taste … what?

Um. Oh my. Um.

Flashback to childhood. I’m a little kid, and the bad girl next door has taught me a new word. “Fart.” I remember playing with my dog Pepper, and he let off a stink bomb, and I exclaimed, “Pepper let a fart!”

My mom was for some reason quite upset at the word fart coming out of her little boy’s mouth, and proceeded to drag me into the bathroom where she washed my mouth out with a blue bar of Zest soap.

That’s what this coffee tastes like to me. Soap. And, no I checked, my cup was not contaminated nor was my Hotshot water boiler, nor was my little cup-top filter.

This coffee, which is not really that bad in any other way, has a distinctly soapy tang to it.

And that, my friends, is not groovy.

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Let’s be honest. I’m coming into this with low expectations.

Here I am at a hotel again, facing another in-room coffee maker. This one is different though. It brews directly into a little 8 ounce Sweetheart Styrofoam cup using a disposable “Filter Pack and Brew Basket” that, to me, looks like a tea bag in a little plastic coffin.

The device itself is kind of neat. It’s designed to make a single small cup of coffee with no mess. In that one aspect, it works flawlessly.

The coffee is not that bad. Notice I’m not saying it’s good. It’s weak, but it doesn’t seem overly stale. There is a hint of a good coffee flavor, but ruined by a unpleasant bitter aftertaste that I suspect comes from some Robusta beans cut into the blend.

In other words, this is a last resort coffee source. Better than nothing, but not much.

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This is a story of some very groovy coffee mojo.

It starts in Mexico, where Marcela celebrated a special birthday along with her recovery from a battle with breast cancer. She and her two good friends, Janet and Libe, were savoring some exceptionally good locally grown coffee, and a conversation came up which planted the seed of an idea. Months later the seed blossomed to a business: to promote and sell the little known and underappreciated organic Arabica beans grown in the high altitude cloud forests of Mexico.

Thus was born Jalima Coffee, the “Jalima” made up from Janet, Libe, and Marcela.

I’m drinking some right now, their H&A blend. The taste is fruity and naturally sweet, with an aggressive and complex flavor. There’s some wonderful wood-smoke notes, and an aftertaste akin to … well, you know when you have a really good breakfast, and you finish off that last piece of yummy bacon with a satisfying cup of coffee? That’s the aftertaste I’m getting, even without having had the bacon. It’s unique and interesting. I’ve never had anything like it.

I wish they’d sent more. I could drink it all day long.

There’s a lot of love in this coffee. You can taste it. These women have a passion for it and they give it loving care all the way through. It doesn’t just stop there, though.

Even if they don’t realize it, Jalima coffee practices the wonderful game theory economic model discovered by John Nash: Do what is good for yourself and everyone else. They give back, they share. They partner with organic farmers who are giving back to the land and the ecology. They donate a portion of their proceeds to a biosphere reserve and conservation fund in the areas they farm. They specifically employ handicapped workers in both Mexico and the US, helping them to acquire skills and become autonomous.

And they bring to us, the coffee drinkers of the world, an amazing coffee you can’t get anywhere else.

So it’s official. Jalima H&A has a lot of good karma and is most definitely a Groovy Brew.

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To all coffee maker manufacturers out there, I put you on notice.

You are hereby officially challenged!

Prove to me that your coffee maker makes better coffee than my cheap little dollar store drip filter. Not “as good” but better.

The coffee must be made in my home, using my coffee and my bottled water. My contention is that you don’t have to pay high dollars to make excellent coffee, and that no drip maker at any price can make coffee that tastes better than this Zen little cup-top drip filter.

All challengers will be featured here on the site. Each will have its merits reviewed. The first manufacturer who proves me wrong will get free advertising for the life of this publication.

Those manufactures who turn down or ignore this challenge will also be listed.

Manufacturers Challenged So Far:

• Black & Decker
• Braun
• Bunn
• Cuisinart
• DeLonghi
• Farberware
• Hamilton Beach
• KitchenAid
• Krups
• Mr. Coffee
• Sunbeam
• West Bend

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Coffee is the second most valuable export commodity in the world, right behind oil.

Legal commodity, that is.

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My love picked up this for me to review. “I know,” she said, “you’ll probably hate it.”

The outlook wasn’t good for two reasons. One, it was a pre-ground bag, and two, the bag reminded me of those horrid office and hotel coffees. Same size, same recommendation (good for 8 to 10 cups).

I knew nothing about Berres Brothers, except that the package read Organic. That doesn’t mean too much anymore. Marketing firms seem to be able to twist anything into an organic knot, and besides, just because it’s organic doesn’t mean it’s not going to be stale as tomb dirt.

One morning before work we brewed up a pot. I took my first sip out of a small cup that was black without any sweetener, just to give it a chance to impress me.

Shock me, is what it did. Surprise me. It was good!

Since then I’ve visited their website and inquired about their other coffees. I also learned why the packaging looked so much like the dreaded office coffee packets — that’s how Barres Brothers started out. The company originated as a vending service by their father, and when the sons took over they expanded their services to include coffee. Not someone else’s old moldy discount coffee, but their own, roasted by them in small batches and delivered to stores and offices around Watertown, Wisconsin.

Imagine that. Quality coffee from a corporate coffee service. A sign that there is good in this world.

In 1997 they dumped the vending service and concentrated on coffee roasting.

Their Organic El Salvador brews up rich and smooth, with a nice chocolate nut nuance and a fruity overtone. I can imagine drinking it in an office all day long, and being happy and productive. I can also imagine drinking it on a beach with my feet up, with the early morning fog still swirling around the shore.

Thanks go out to my love for picking this up for me. It’s a groovy brew to be sure!

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