Drinking Coffee from Elsewhere

So, now that I am back writing, I often need a little pick me up to keep going. Okay, not really. I needed a hook for this post. I have had a few coffee from elsewhere that I have been meaning to try. Many countries have their own obsession with packaged coffee of some ilk. None are more serious than the Japanese.

People I work with know this about me and I had four packages of coffee to try. Two of these came with their own pour over method included.

The first one I tried really should have been the last one. It was the best of the bunch and came with its own filter for pour over. Of course, it was from Japan. Drinkable out of the pack without adding sugar or milk. It had the words Blue Mountain on the package. Not sure of the providence but it is good. It produced a good bloom, That is a fancy way of saying that you pour a bit of hot water to start the process and off gassing will produce a bit of bubbles on the surface and then you can continue to pour the hot water.   It easily beat most standard coffee shop coffee and most perked coffee.

Standard Vanilla Latte from Starbucks. It coats the tongue and has an odd bit of bitterness. It is better than most flavoured instant coffee. But it bears as much resemblance to coffee as most instant coffees do. It is not something that I would drink as a coffee and maybe not as a hot chocolate replacement either.

Yup, that's Starbucks

Sweet Christmas. I think this was an Indonesian find? Like T-Rex's Get It On, this was 'dirty and sweet/clad in black' but I don't want to make this my girl. Like the mentality required to make that type of statement, this is a taste from the 70's and it is not mine. A few sips causes tinnitus and then woopsy on my tongue. (Hey, I'm reading from my notes at the time and putting words around them.) At the end, there was sludge. Lots of it. So, yeah.... Nope.

Indonesian coffee

This last one was earthy and roasty. It tasted like coffee! There was little to no bitterness. It bloomed well but there was a leftover taste of pencil shavings. This may have been due to the temperature of the water. This one didn't need any sugar or milk either. Another Japanese pour over coffee. This one was bought in a gas station but was better than any coffee I have had in Canada from a gas station.

Earthy, toasty

So, I was glad to have tasted a bunch of these coffee from other places. It is strange how it can put what you drink into perspective.

I could talk about the guilt associated with single package coffee and maybe someday I will write that post. These were gifts and meant well. I appreciate the small tokens that are brought back for me from trips. Unexpected. And I can honestly say that the experience was a bit more varied that I expected.