I am a fan of dark roasted coffees...they make me tingle with delight. They have such body, strength plus an ability to stand up and make you pay attention when you drink them. Dark roasted coffee is, in my very humble opinion, the kind of coffee that makes coffee drinking worthwhile.

I have been drinking Celebes Kolassi for a while. I am on my second pound of it so I am no stranger to this earthy, smoky Indonesian brew, however at the recommendation of a friend I made my brew a little stronger. I put three scoops of Celebes Kolassi in my French press pot instead of my normal 1 1/2. I should have been prepared. Hello, now this was a cup of stout and I mean STOUT coffee. It slapped me in the face and got my attention.

I drank the first two sips black and then chickened out by adding some evaporated milk and two cubes of sugar to my coffee. I was able to drink it but knew that I would not be making a three scoop pot of Celebes Kolassi again. Wowzer!

I immediately, okay 30 minutes later, made another pot with just a tad over 2 scoops of Celebes Kolassi in the pot and this one had the attention getting factor my friend had described and was very smooth, sassy and rich. I did add a little evaporated milk but that was just because I like the way it adds a hint of caramel to the complex flavor.

I am sold on making my Celebes Kolassi a bit stronger than I had been making it. The flavor is more intense but oh so very satisfying. My mouth is still filled with joy and it has been almost an hour since I completed my second cup of coffee, so you have to know this was a happy experience.

I think my lesson is to mix things up a bit when you are brewing coffee...does it need to be a little stronger, do you need to cut back just a bit on the amount of coffee you are brewing or have you perfected the brew to your satisfaction? I think we can all play with our coffee and find a new level of intensity in our cup. As for me I may never try three scoops of Celebes Kolassi again but if I do I will be ready for it to make me snap to attention and not take a single drop for granted.

Enjoy your coffee!

Ciao!

Coffee Notes

I have been writing about coffee for several weeks now. I think that we have established that I like coffee, that I think it should be the national drink and that everyone should celebrate coffee. I don't think that you have to be a coffee connoisseur to enjoy a good cup of coffee or know for a fact that you don't like a cup of coffee. You can stand proudly and say, "I put cream(er) and sugar" in my coffee and not be embarrassed. You can drink your coffee black so you can fully appreciate the nuance of every little flavor but you don't have to be smug about it.

We can all agree that Starbucks has left an indelible mark on the coffee business but is not the be all and end all with regard to coffee. Most of us are sad to say that Maxwell House is no longer, "good to the last drop." (We grew up believing that and find it sad to let go of our preconceived notions.)

Coffee has been celebrated and reviled by different cultures at different times. Some of my fellow bloggers have told us the history of coffee and broadened our knowledge base about this sweet nectar we love to drink.

I know that as a "coffee junkie" I enjoy having a great cuppa joe and as I have said earlier, really enjoy finding it in the most unusual places. When the local pizza place can beat the tar out of Starbucks with its cup of coffee you know you have found a treasure to savor.

Recently I have heard about "weight reduction" coffee. I don't know what it has in it to cause "weight reduction" but I do know that whenever I am hungry a cup of the brew will stem the tide of my appetite for several hours and keep me from eating. I wonder if the people drinking "weight reduction" coffee have just tried a cup of Columbian to see if for a cheaper price they can lose weight and save money. I am not saying they will but I do wonder about such things.

As I said before, I am no coffee expert but I love coffee and I enjoy writing about it. The experience of coffee, preferably with some cherry pie, it the key to me. I don't have to know about essences and citrus-y notes. I am just happy when it doesn't taste like car polish.

Ciao!

Writing is a painful process at times but the end result can bring such joy!