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I remember the aroma as a child. How do you describe that warm coffee scent? Warm, woody, toasty, familiar. It filled the entire house. It reminded me that the morning was here and if I walked into the kitchen, the table would be set with toasted bread, butter, cheese, cereal, and all the other delicious things that come with breakfast. Add to that the boiled steamy cream and sugar, and you’ve got a little piece of heaven.. or should I say ‘peace’ of heaven. As a child, I liked it– but now– I love coffee!
As a child and until just about 5 years ago, I thought that all coffee was the same. It always smelled so wonderful but as soon as I tried it, it just tasted like a lot of hot milk with a little bitter coffee. Folgers was just as good as Starbucks. It wasn’t until recently that I discovered the truly diverse tastes that coffee can offer.
When I Started to Love Coffee
My mom always bought the best and strongest coffee here in the US. The brand I remember was Cafe Bustelo. In my mom’s opinion, it was the closest to the coffee in Brazil. She would brew it in about 2 cups of water for about 10 minutes, then filter it through a paper filter. The coffee had that wonderful scent, and with added milk, provided that creamy and toasty taste. Since I was a child, I didn’t really appreciate it.
Once I started working in my career, office coffee became a thing. The coffee at the office smelled burnt and was filtered through one of those expensive office coffee makers that was never cleaned. I tried drinking it, but I could never finish it. I watched my co-workers drink it black, or with non-dairy creamer, which they had to use with the added hazelnut or vanilla flavors (blah!) to get it to taste good enough. I had to bring condensed milk to make it taste decent.
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A year ago, I traveled to Brazil to visit my family. We had coffee every day, of course. Their method of filtering the coffee was to slow drip it through a cloth strainer. Their milk tastes different than ours but it was perfect for the coffee over there. There too, we woke up to that fresh and wonderful scent. My cousin cut up thin slices of french bread and let them get crunchy toasty with butter. We’d snack on these all day. At every restaurant we visited, a cafezinho would be the after-dinner offering, that tiny cup of strong black Brazilian coffee with a block of raw sugar to drop in. The flavor of coffee would never be the same. This is when I realized how much I love coffee!
The Best Coffee
Once back home, I decided to try different coffee beans and different filtering types, different cream types, and different sugars. Which would prove to be the best? Which coffee shop can match the homemade goodness? I was determined to find out.
Sorry Starbucks. I fail to taste the fascination with this coffee. I’ve tried different types, from just a regular cup to the caramel macchiato, and the coffee, if you remove the added caramel and salt and pumpkin spice and all that, has the same signature flavor, which I don’t find to be very enticing. Even the scent isn’t nostalgic or warm. Somehow Starbucks has an industrially bitter taste. It’s good on the run, but not if you’re looking for that bit of sunshine on a rainy day.
I prefer Coffee Bean over Starbucks, but it will still never reach that Brazilian coffee goodness. In looking for that goodness, I bought the double shot cappuccino the other morning, then went over to the condiment area and added the half and half in the rest of the cup, and their raw sugar. This actually didn’t taste too bad. But, since the half-and-half was sitting out cold, the coffee was neither cold nor hot. A room-temperature coffee and cream will never fulfill my coffee needs.
Surprisingly, McDonalds’s coffee is pretty good. I used to drink the Frappe in the summer occasionally. It is quite refreshing, but sweet and not very strong. The regular coffee isn’t bad either. It has a nice aroma, and you’re able to request the number of cream and sugars to add. The funny thing is, in New Zealand, I ordered it from the touch screen menu which called the half-and-half “Cream” so when I went to the counter, I asked the girl for the cream. I guess they don’t use that term in New Zealand, because she looked puzzled. It took me a few minutes to figure it out and say “Milk” lol. Then she got it.
Coffee that I Love!
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At home, I tried several different things:
Grinding the beans
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Grinding the beans brings that whole coffee fragrance to the forefront even before brewing the coffee. I was able to grind Pete’s coffee beans to try it, and the coffee was delicious.
A coffee I didn’t enjoy from the bean was the Trader Joe’s Cafe Pajaro blend. The flavor was just too bold and without body, like a meal that is so spicy hot that you can’t taste the actual food. I wouldn’t recommend it.
A nice bean blend was a Peruvian blend I tried. Very strong flavor, but still mild enough to enjoy.
Of course, my favorite was a Brazilian bean my son got me for Christmas. This one had a woody flavor and a hint of chocolate and caramel.
As far as ground Brazilian coffees, these are my favorites, from best to very best:
#5
#4
#3
#2
#1
So- that’s it for now. I may add more to this, so please stick with me by bookmarking my page! I LOVE COFFEE