Off topic: Why does Seattle produce some of the best coffee?

[Shardik]

I would expect it to come from anywhere but Seattle, but all the best coffee I buy comes from the NW US which couldn't grow a coffee bean for love or money?

Correct me where I'm wrong here.

[billyoc]

1. They can't grow coffee there. You said as much.

:shrug:

[HereSince1628]

2. Because the rest of the best are produced somewhere else?

Did I get it right? :shrug:

[closeupready]

3. No, you're correct. I have my own theory:

Starbucks lifted Seattle's economy during the boom in the early 90's, and trained a whole army of 'barristas' who then went on to bigger things. Naturally, most of them stayed close to their familiar territory, the Northwest. This rule of thumb may have changed somewhat, but in my experience, you can buy coffee off the internet from just about any coffee roastery which is located in Washington state or Oregon and be confident that the beans will be whole, fully roasted and fragrant.

[depakid]

5. Northwesterers brew by far the best beer in the world too...

Just sayin'

[DrDan]

23. "in the world"???? That may be a bit of a stretch.

Perhaps the best in the U.S.

There are some fine European beers.

[BlooInBloo]

25. You haven't been to the Elysian.

[DrDan]

32. no - but I have been to Belgium

http://www.ratebeer.com/Ratings/Ratings-Top50.asp

Highest rated beer - at 4.51 is from Belgium

The nearest Elysian was at 3.86.


oh well - a matter of personal taste.

[depakid]

38. There are plenty of Northwest Belgian ales- better than I've had in Europe

Try one of the Hair of Dog's if you get around these parts:

http://www.hairofthedog.com/beers.html

(btw: several German guys who were studying here over the summer came to the same conclusion- and not reluctantly).

[bobbert]

42. Belgium has way better beer

Yes, there are a few really good beers in the NW US, but there are a lot of really, really good beers in Belgium. I guess it's still personal preference though.

[niceypoo]

26. Best coffee Ive had is in Costa Rica

brewed in any resturant

[Shardik]

7. Best answer so far.

I'm enjoying a cup of House Blend/Hawaiian Hazelnut(half and half in the brew)from an online distributor in Seattle that is some of the better coffee I have had in quite a while.

A great cup can be had on the cheap with Costco's Kirkland blend which I read was manufactured by Starbucks.

[NashVegas]

29. How Many Starbucks Did You See In Seattle

In the 1990s?

I visited in 2001 and never saw even one Starbucks.

[progressoid]

54. I was thinking that the dot coms, Microsoft, Amazon etc lifted Seattle's economy

Starbucks just rode their wave.

[closeupready]

56. Yeah, that's true, too. The whole Pacific Northwest boomed at the same time.

But as far as coffee goes, Starbucks was the first mass-market 'gourmet' coffee to go on a growing spree. The others may now do coffee better than Starbucks, but *bux was the trailblazer.

[Uben]

4. Seattle coffee? No way!

The best coffe comes from Columbia, IMHO. I like it strong and tasty, not watered down or sweetened, and no sissy flavors to mask the taste. Just hot,rich, robust, coffee flavor!

[Fuzz]

6. I like Kenyan myself

[Uben]

8. Don't think I've had Kenyan

But, you know, it's hard to change once you've locked into a good flavor. I'd like to go to a coffee tasting event and taste the various beans and blends.

[JCMach1]

14. Yemeni beans are beyond awesome...

I roast my own as well.

Brazilian, Yemeni, Ethiopian, Indian... whatever I can get hold of...

[mainegreen]

63. Yup. Yemeni=yummy

[NRaleighLiberal]

21. Kenyan coffees are awesome - as are Ethiopian and Yemen

Then again, we had an El Salvador peaberry last week that was incredible. and Panama Gesha. so much good coffee, so little time!

[Fuzz]

22. I get many of Peets peaberry special beans

Sweeter usually.

[southpaw]

40. Kenya AA from The Coffee Fool.

Rich and winey. Not too expensive, either.

If you haven't tried the Coffee Fool, check it out here:

http://www.coffeefool.com/

[sentelle]

43. My preference

Is sweet marias http://www.sweetmarias.com

Mostly they sell green beans, but will ship roasted coffees on tuesdays as well.

And for less than what I can get roasted beans for, I get microlots of good coffee.

[notadmblnd]

17. I'm with you on the Colombian coffee

No over roasted, burnt tasting coffee a la Starbucks for me.

[Shardik]

24. Yes, when I have the money, I love to buy and grind a good

dark Columbian bean.

It's amazing how much difference that the grind can make.

[ThomWV]

9. You may be on to something there - this may sound absurd but McDonalds are different ...

Think what you will of me but I eat a burger at McDonalds about once every week or two. Its always when I'm out on a motorcycle ride and I stop at the places because they are reliably fast, have a known set of products, and have clean bathrooms.

Now this is the thing I've noticed, while the stuff hardly qualifies as food it is much better when it comes from a small rural town as compared to more heavily populated places. The slabs of 'food' are the same of course but there is much greater care in preparation out in the country compared to in the cities - oh, and the buildings are always cleaner in the small towns too.

I have no doubt that if someone cared to take the time and expense to confirm it that there are measurable differences in the things I've mentioned. One other thing, the service is always - and I do mean always - slower at the small town outlets compared to the city outlets.

[Shardik]

15. I ride on two wheels as well...

But I love to stop at the "Mom and Pop" eateries. I LOVE unhealthy Southern cooking. However, when I am on the road I stop at anyplace with a coffee pot for my caffeine fixes and am most often disappointed.

[TomClash]

10. Have you had coffee in

Vienna or Santos or expresso in Rome?

Not sure Seattle has the best coffee.

But I understand your point. My guess is MS and its progeny led to the laptop and chic coffeehouses.

[Shardik]

19. I'm on a limited budget andwould go broke traveling to other continents

in search of the best coffee. :)

I would love to be able to sample Italian Espresso in Italy.

[TomClash]

35. It's fabulous

Someday you will get to go and you will be shocked. I know I was.

[marmar]

11. If you're referring to the overroasted dirt water from Starbucks or Seattle's Best...blecch.....

The best coffee COMES from places like Kenya, Brazil and Guatemala, and is SERVED in real coffee cups (not paper ones with quotes printed on them) in coffee houses in places such as Paris, Amsterdam, Rome and Vienna. Hell, even the train station in Frankfurt, Germany, serves coffee that blows anything we get away.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

37. Charbucks, says it all. Yuck.

[Terran]

47. Second that.

Just had some Charbucks a few weeks a go because the place I normally go was closed for vacation. God, over-roasting does not equal flavor! Bleh.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

60. I have one in my Barnes and Noble and was shocked the first time I tasted it after

all the touting. Once in a blue moon I go there as a social thing to meet with friends, and will order it iced...I then sweeten and lighten it up as much as I can to disguise the flavor. I should really order tea the next time.

My local gas stations' coffees are far superior and a fraction of the price.

[sentelle]

12. meh

I won't touch Seattle Coffee, and I live just outside of Seattle.

1. Seattle doesn't grow coffee, it roasts coffee.

2. They have an absurd notion that espresso or the drinks made from it (latte, crappuchino, etc) come from the darkest roasts (italian, vienna) which are almost indistinguishable with charcoal.

The italians do their espresso with beans roasted lighter. Think full city + and lighter.

Personally, I will disagree with the columbian comment. I prefer the african beans (currently I am switching off between an indian monsooned malabar, and a tanzanian estate. I roast by hand for my own cup. And I get my green beans from a dealer of microlots in the SF area.

[safeinOhio]

18. I'm not so picky

I grew up on Sanka.:)

[BlooInBloo]

27. I could care less either. Drip coffee is drip coffee to me.

[Missy Vixen]

50. But we must let everyone know how superior our taste is than theirs!

Come on, BlooInBloo, we're letting down the side! :woohoo:

I'm one of the few residents of the Seattle area that prefers tea, but I've had a bellyful over the years listening to people bitch about Starbucks. They're one of the few companies that provides health care to part-time employees, educational reimbursement, etcetera. Plus, people still seem to be able to choke down their offerings several times a day. They're doing something right.

One thing's for sure: I suppose I should be thankful that most of these aren't coming to our house for coffee. I'm sure whatever I had on hand would not be acceptable, would it?

Julie

[slampoet]

39. As someone who lives in the most Italian state in the US, I can back you up on the Charroasting

The real Italian barristas here in Rhode Island do a roast that is lighter than French Roast. As well as being tastier when brewed properly it is also higher in caffeine and i believe quality of feeling over any coffee i had the years i was in Seattle.

[NRaleighLiberal]

13. Seattle helped create a preference for dark roasts. Different regions of the country like different

styles. Wars are fought over this - the New England preference for light roasts (which creates what I call dishwater coffee - AKA Dunkin Donuts) is very different.

I've found the best way to make great coffee is to buy green beans from Sweet Maria and roast them myself. Today we had a nice Full City roasted Ethiopia Sidamo...tomorrow, we will have a dark roasted Kenya. It is a great hobby, but spoils you for coffee - you find that most everyone else's is wanting after you do it yourself!

[JCMach1]

16. Once you roast your own, everyone else is inferior... the key is freshness

of the roast...

[NRaleighLiberal]

20. Yes. I find that if I rest my roasts for 24 hours, they are at their peak for about 3-5 days.

Makes you realize that even when you buy the vacuum packed bags, the beans are likely on their way out the door. I roast mine in a very inexpensive old fashioned crank popcorn popper, outside on a coleman stove. Takes about 5-7 min to roast half a pound. Preference for the African coffees. Yum!

[JCMach1]

31. Most of the beans we get here are Brazil, India

and Yemen... Yemen is my absolute favorite.

I use an old-fashioned hot air popper. The equipment essentially doesn't matter. The bean and timing of the roast is what is critical.

[Shardik]

28. I have not found beans that haven't been roasted before.

Where can one find them?

[Neecy]

61. There are quite a few places

My favorite location is sweetmarias.com. They sell both unroasted beans and an assortment of home roasting appliances.

I belong to a green coffee co-op that sells the beans wholesale, and they're quite a bit cheaper than what you can find online. I roast with an iRoast but you can easily roast coffee with an air popcorn popper.

[Shardik]

62. Thanks!

I'll check them out.

[slampoet]

30. Seattle coffee is worse than coffee in New Orleans, Boston, Providence, Miami, SF, PORT CITIES!!

Seattle is just a city with a port.



That is the only reason.


And i don't know what you buy, but here on the east coast, only the shittiest coffee has passed through Seattle.

[QC]

33. Are you referring to Charbuck's? Yuck.

The Target store brand (Archer Farms) is better than Charbuck's.

[Lex]

48. Charbucks!? LOL. Exactly right.

Burned beans. Yuck. I steer clear of that place.

[QC]

49. Yuck is right. ANd I love, love, love dark roast.

But there's a big difference between dark roast and burnt to hell and back.

[a la izquierda]

34. Mexico.

Chiapan coffee is lovely. I'm drinking some now. Yum.

[NashVegas]

36. Starbucks Rode In On Grunge's Wake

Seattle coffee isn't necessarily the best - it just happened to be the right roasters' location at the right time.

Cafes where one could chill out over a mocha or expresso and read a magazine or whatever were increasing in popularity, especially on the West Coast, through the late 1980s and into the 1990s.

Before Nirvana broke, these were the places you'd find the Doc Maartens crowd, across the country.

When Nirvana broke and all attention was on Seattle, Starbucks marketed itself as THE Seattle hip cafe and rode the wave to franchise success by its association with grunge and alterna-chic.

[stoge18]

41. For a solid account of history of bean in U.s., check out

a book called "Strabucked". Very interesting....

As far as mass-produced coffee goes (it's about all I can afford anymore), do you all prefer Folgers or Maxwell House? I believe the 100% arabica blend of Maxwell House is infinitely superior to the robusta laden blend that Folgers uses.

Best cup I've ever had came from a Peet's near Harvard Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

[Shardik]

44. The best "mass produced" coffee I enjoy is Costco's Kirkland brand.

A 3 pound tin for under ten dollars is affordable and it's a fine grind so it goes a long way.

As to the Arabica blend, that's not too bad either.

[TankLV]

57. so does my coffee hound partner - I like the taste too...

but you have to have a "fresh" shipment...sometimes they're left-over boxes from the back (I'm assuming) and it doesn't taste nearly as good as usually...

[sentelle]

45. Supermarket coffees

Firstly, let me say this: robusta beans tend to add some depth to the cup, but also an amount of bitterness to the blend. Some blenders say its ok, if you don't have a lot of it in the blend.

The thing is: robusta is also cheaper to produce, and you have brazil flooding the market with it, which makes it attractive for canned coffees.

As for the canned blends (which are generally 12 oz 'pounds') some of the decent sweet Marias blends are less than $5.00 a pound (16 oz), if you do espresso, the liquid amber (named for the crema) is fanstastic.

[PufPuf23]

53. Starbucks was born of Peets

Peets is not the same since Mr. Peet sold the company and there was an IPO but is still good coffee. Original Peets had a store on Walnut and Cedar in North Berkeley and another store in Menlo Park, CA. One of thew founders of Starbucks worked for Peets in Berkley and the first beans sold by Starbucks in Seattle were contract roasted by Peets (so long ago).

My favorite coffee ever was Peets Mocha Java but Peets now is for me hard to tell from Starbucks. I buy Starbucks Dark French Roast on the cheap at Costco now myself. I either lived in Berkeley or bought Peets mail order from December 1973 (when I moved to North Berkeley for university) until 1999 when I realized I could no longer differentiate between Peets and Starbucks dark french roast.

[Bigmack]

46. Lotta posts here are off-topic...

Lotta people just sharing caffeine masturbatory stories about their coffee.

I thought the question dealt with why good coffee comes from Seattle.

The answer is because the cold, wet weather produces coffee drinkers/junkies who want more flavor than Maxwell House (do they still make that?)

Starbucks, SBC, Costco .... whatever.

They (we) want our coffee hearty, tasty, and often.

[Missy Vixen]

51. Thanks, Bigmack

>Lotta people just sharing caffeine masturbatory stories about their coffee.<

I'm wondering how much of an already crowded day I'd have to surrender to hand-roasting coffee beans to serve to those who might be visiting our home...

Viva Seattle!
Julie

[tjwash]

52. Seattle doesn't produce coffee...they import coffee

That's America though...90 percent of our shit comes from elswhere, and just because we consume it we claim it as our own.

[SidDithers]

55. Blue Mountain Coffee...

in Jamaica is the best I've had.

Here in Canada, we have have Tim Horton's running through our veins.

Sid

[TankLV]

58. It doesn't - HAWAII does - by far...

And, unlike Seattle, etc, Hawaii GROWS and PROCESSES it's coffee...

Lyons Coffee in Kakaako section of Honolulu was VERY good...

not to mention Hawaiian Chocolate...ummmmmmmm...

[Lydia Leftcoast]

66. Mmmm, Kona!

:7

[plaintiff]

59. Similar to why you can't get a decent baked potato in Idaho

they send all the good ones away to be sold!

[norepubsin08]

64. Because it rains all the time

we have that cold damp feeling in our bones so from November thru March I drink coffee almost all day long. To put that much of one substance into to my body, it better be good!!!

[cliffordu]

65. Because we're cooler up here....

[Lydia Leftcoast]

67. Actually, Japan had gourmet coffee shops long before the U.S. did

You could pick any single-variety beans or blend and they'd grind it fresh and brew a single cup in this contraption that looked as if it came from a chemistry lab. It cost about $4, but it was heavenly. The shops had different decor, different background music, and owners who knew all the regulars.

Now, unfortunately, Starbucks and its imitators are crowding out the individually owned coffee shops. Oddly enough, Starbucks in Japan charges $3 for a tall coffee but no more than it does in the States for the espresso drinks.