Food Photos

Thursday, October 20, 2005

More Coffee...

So still no digital camera yet. I'll have to bug my sister about it, but hopefully I'll be able to get my hands on it in the near future. That said, I'm going to talk about one of my favorite topics that doesn't require pictures (although they would be cool): coffee.

At work a small group of us started something called a "coffee club," wherein we each bring a pound of good coffee, go through them in order and then replace the bag each of us brought when it's gone. We started this coffee-sharing group because the free coffee at work is...the opposite of good.

The system for who buys coffee when works pretty well, although there has been some shuffling of coffee bags, which means some people may end up buying more coffee than others. It's not that big of a deal because there are only about six people in the club. Right now we go through about one bag every two to three weeks.

The group brews a variety of coffee types, though some favorites seem to be Starbucks' Gold Coast Blend and Starbucks' Sumatra. Unfortunately, the Gold Coast Blend isn't that great. The Sumatra was actually decent. Sadly, I also bough a pound of Gloria Jean's Italian Dark Roast blend that just wasn't good at all. At the time, I thought, "How bad can it be?" Here's a little more info about each.

Starbucks' Gold Coast Blend: Ah, Starbucks. With a reputation for overzealous roasting, their lighter blends are often equivalent to other companies' dark roasts. Well, with this blend at least Starbucks is willing to call a dark roast a dark roast. I've had dark roast coffees before, though, and this blend leans more towards burnt than dark roast. It has a "smokier" flavor than other Starbucks blends that I've tried. Overall, not awful but too harsh for my tastes.

Gloria Jean's Italian Dark Roast: Not a great blend. Something about it just tasts sorta...off. I'm not entirely sure what the problem is, but it has a somewhat "flat" taste. The overall flavors are muted and don't resemble other Italian dark roast coffees that I've had (espresso blends or otherwise).

Starbucks' Sumatra: Not a bad coffee blend. Definitely a dark roast, but the longer roasting time complements the earthy/herbal flavors of the coffee better. It's also not too astringent, which keeps the coffee under control.

More coffee-related stuff to come.

Thursday, October 06, 2005

Digital camera possibly on the way...

Still waiting on a digital camera. Yes, anyone reading this will probably tell me to just go out and 'freaking buy one!!!' but I've got a shot at a decent free one. Once I get the camera, posting will resume with more regularity. Oh, I'm going to focus most of this on my humble home cooking efforts. Restaurant reviews are helpful. I personally read a number of blogs that review restaurants on a regular basis. The only thing is many people do restaurant reviews better than I do, so I'd rather focus on what I do understand fairly well (cooking). Anyway, more focused content and pictures on the way in the next few weeks.