(See my other coffee related posts) – All of us coffee drinkers have ended up with containers of beans or ground coffee sitting on a shelf. It is not that we don’t use our coffee, we just are tempted by so many new flavors and blends.
That leaves us with the question of how long coffee will last before it goes bad. The article Does Coffee Go Bad? can answer that question whether you have beans or ground coffee to store. The short answer is a week for ground coffee and up to three months for beans if stored properly.
(See my other coffee-related posts) – I like coffee, particularly flavored coffees. For years now I have been buying roasted whole beans. I then grind them just before brewing my coffee. I recently came across the article My 15-Year Quest to Make the Ultimate DIY Coffee Roaster. I found it to be a very interesting look at how you can build a coffee roaster and roast your own beans.
I used to subscribe to Make magazine and always liked their ideas. The roaster designs in this article look interesting. I think that most of them would be easy to build. In particular, the Dog Bowl/Heat Gun Roaster from Make: Volume 65 looks like it would be a simple project.
Looking at Amazon, coffee roasters start at around $50 and go way up from there. Rather than lay out the cash just to try roasting, one of these designs might be the way to try roasting your own beans. It would also give you quite the conversation piece for visitors. You will find the full directions for the Dog Bowl/Heat Gun Roaster build here.
If I give bean roasting a try I will report how it goes.
(See my other Food related posts) – Not too many weeks ago (late May) Central Texas was subject to severe storm that left many without power. That included us. Desperate for coffee on the morning of Saturday May 29 we set out looking for a location that had power.
We found the Illuminate Coffee Bar at 12129 RR 620, suite 102 in Austin. It had just what we were looking for – good coffee and a quiet place to sit, read, and wait for the power to be restored to our home. It had several tables available in their serving area. We found one with available AC power to charge our devices while we savored the coffee. In addition to coffee, they had breakfast items and sandwiches. You can check out their full menu.
Whether you are suffering from a power outage or just in search for a good cup of coffee I can recommend Illuminati!
This post is a little different from most, but it combines two of my interests – Coffee and WWII. I happened upon Warbird Coffee Co. a few days ago. As the name implies the coffee company has a military connection. As they state on their website:
The Warbird Coffee Company, established in 2021 by Jon and Adam, friends who, as a result of being raised on a diet of model kits and films such as the Battle of Britain and 633 Squadron, developed a love of vintage warbirds.
Brought together by chance in 2006 through their passion for wartime aviation and military history, it has been the golden thread that has continued throughout the years resulting in an untold number of trips to wartime airfields, air shows, and visits to wartime battlefields such as Normandy and the Ardennes.
The idea for The Warbird Coffee Company grew from their shared enjoyment of the perfect cup of coffee and seeing Warbirds where they belong. The decision to combine the two seemed only natural.
In creating something that focuses specifically on a community that is constantly battling the financial burdens associated with restoring, maintaining, and flying vintage aircraft, the pair felt that The Warbird Coffee Company could also do something to help with the future of warbird aviation.
That is why a number of our products are dedicated to specific aircraft that remain flightworthy to this day, or aircraft that are currently being restored. A portion of proceeds from those products will go directly to their operators to contribute where necessary to getting them, or keeping them flying.
Additional ranges may vary from time to time, to focus on historically significant aircraft, units, or even aerial engagements.
The company has a range of coffee and tea products. They are under the categories of RAF, USAAF, Luftwaffe, and Night Fighter Range. Prices start at 7 and can either be beans or ground coffee. Prices are slightly cheaper if you subscribe to a monthly shipment. They do ship throughout the UK and to Europe. Sadly they do not ship to the US currently.
If you enjoy coffee or tea, live in Warbird Coffee’s service area, and are interested in WWII aviation history, please support them.
If you have an interest in the WWII era of history, you may find these three pages of interest.
The “World War II Resources” page is a constantly growing collection of more than 520 links to museums, memorials, websites, Facebook pages, Twitter feeds, and other sources with information on the World War II era in history.
The “World War II Timeline” page expands almost daily and shows events leading up to WWII, as well as during the war. Events are broken down into the Pacific and European Theaters by date.
The About WWII page is a collection of links to posts that I have made over the years that are relevant to WWII.
(See my other Food and Location related posts) – I have liked Coffee for many years, Recently I have finally converted my wife to appreciate a good brewed cup as well.
While were recently in Nevada we looked for a new coffee roasters to try. We found a gem in Magnum Coffee Roastery. We visited their location at 1335 E. Sunset Rd. Suite A, Las Vegas, NV. Magnum is a family-owned business with the home-base at 1 Java Blvd. Nunica, MI 49448.
The Las Vegas location is spacious with a variety of coffee and tea for sale. We have become fond of flavored coffee and Magnum has some good ones. While were were there we purchased four flavors. The local favorite is ‘Vegas Golden Knights’. We also bought ‘Hilanger Grogg’ (butterscotch with a hint of liqueur), ‘Cinnamon Hazelnut’ (Cinnamon & roasted Hazelnut), and ‘Love Potion #9’ (Chocolate, Hazelnut & Cinnamon).
We have enjoyed all four and had ‘Love Potion’ again this morning. If you visit their website you will find a wide variety of both coffee blends and flavored coffee. At the time I am writing this post there are 114 choices of flavored coffee.
if you enjoy coffee and are near a Magnum Coffee location I recommend that you try some of their coffee!
(See my other Food and Coffee related posts) – While we were recently returning home from a trip to Disney World we stopped in Mobile, AL. A little searching on the Internet produced the Carpe Diem Coffee & Tea Co. as a popular local coffee house.
We spent two nights in Mobile and we liked Carpe Diem so much we visited it twice. They offer a selection of breakfast and lunch items, but we focused on their baked goods. It was busy both times we visited. Parking can be a little difficult, but a little patience usually yields a place.
Carpe Diem is located in what looks like an old house. It can be found at 4072 Old Shell Road, Mobile, AL 36608. It is directly across the street from Spring Hill College. We tried coffee and an assortment of baked goods on our two visits. We tried their Cinnamon Role, Blueberry Crumble Cake, Mississippi Mud, and White Chocolate Raspberry Scone. We were very pleased with it all.
We have begun to look for and doing flavored coffee. It is not always easy to find freshly roasted and flavored coffee beans. We were able to find some at Carpe Diem and have been very pleased. They offer several types of freshly roasted coffee beans – Medium Roast, Dark Roast, Blends and Flavored. We bought Snickerdoodle, Christmas Morning, and S’mores flavored coffees. We have been enjoying those since we returned home, but sadly all three are almost now gone. We may have to take advantage of they mail order service.
If you are in Mobile and looking for a caffeine hit (or some baked goodies), I recommend Carpe Diem!
(See my other Coffee related posts) – Have you ever drank simply way more coffee than you should? I have, though not very often, and I can feel the overdose of caffeine. When I saw the article “How To Counteract Caffeine When You’ve Had One Coffee Too Many” this morning I thought it was worth sharing.
Their recommendations:
Drink water
Mild exercise like walking
Breathing exercises to counter caffeine-induced anxiety
Meditate
With so many drinks infused with caffeine, these suggestions might come in handy.
We were recently driving across New Mexico and had to stop for gas in Grants, New Mexico. We took that opportunity to get a little more coffee. In our search, we turned up the Mt. Taylor Coffee Company.
The Mt. Taylor is a small, unassuming building located at 201 Central Ave, Grants, NM 87020-3534. While the looks are simple, they had very good coffee and some of the best scones we had ever tasted.
We shared both a Green Chile Bacon Cheddar and a Cranberry Almond scone. We are already planning to stop there again when we head home.
You may want to check them out on Facebook. While there are not many reviews, those they have on TripAdvisor and Yelp are excellent.
(See my other Coffee related posts) – Do you add salt to your coffee? Well, if you brew a good cup of coffee you shouldn’t need to. In the video above James Hoffmann explains when and how you should add salt to your coffee. He uploaded the video to YouTube in May of 2020.
When should you add salt to your coffee? The time to add salt is when you are drinking a particularly bitter cup of coffee. Think that coffee you bought at the convenience store when you are getting gas. You take a sip and figure it has been cooking for hours. For some people, adding a little salt will improve that bitter taste.
How much should you add? Not very much! You will have to carefully add salt until the taste is better for you. The recommendation is to have a prepared saline solution. That is a solution with 20% salt – 80% water by weight. Just mix a little table salt with water. You can then add drops of this to your cup of coffee to reach the taste you are looking for. In his example, he added about 0.2g of salt to a 200g cup of coffee. So don’t pour salt into your cup. That will likely make the cup undrinkable.
Why does adding salt improve the taste? The salt can mitigate the bitterness of food.
The next time I am driving across the country I am going to have some saline solution along. If I buy a bitter cup of coffee I am going to give this a try. Nothing is worse than having a cup of coffee you have to force yourself to drink.
John's Notes 