Sunday, June 5, 2011

More on coffee

I know, you guys are wondering what else I might expect of you now when it comes to coffee. Buy in bulk, grind it at home, brew your own, take your own cup... so much work. But oh the savings!

But this is a story where I accidentally discovered even more cool ways to save on coffee and get even more satisfaction - can you stand it??

So, I was at the co-op staring at the bulk coffee section. I usually just buy whatever is on sale, but I realized that because of this, I never really know what my favorite kind of coffee is (dark, light, hint of chocolate, etc). I was feeling adventurous and generous so I decided on something totally different, something totally not on sale: hazelnut coffee. Now, if you know me, you know that I actually can't stand hazelnut coffee. The beans smell oh so nice, but the coffee - blah. But hazelnut happens to be my partner's favorite coffee so I thought I'd give it a shot again... it's been so long, maybe I might like it now.

What? Why would I like it now? What could I possibly think changed about me or the coffee? Regardless, I bought a bunch (actually, too much by accident) and brewed up the first pot. I poured it, let it sit for 500 hours (remember? my klean kanteen coffee cup works so well that I have to take the lid off and let it cool forever before I can drink it) and then I took a sip.

Blah.

You guessed it, I still do not like hazelnut coffee.

So now we had this full pot of gross coffee that I did not want and no good coffee to drink. The solution? Well, this actually worked out better than expected: pour the coffee into a bottle and put it in the fridge so that my partner can make iced coffee from it throughout the day. I drink my coffee black so iced coffee doesn't really make me giddy, but I'm happy that he can enjoy some good organic coffee with raw organic milk and raw organic sugar instead of... whatever the alternative might be.
So I brewed a new pot of coffee for myself and put the leftover of that in the fridge as well. Now we both have the coffee that we like and we make full use of every drop in the pot. Before, we would brew a pot, drink most of it and ignore the rest (usually not much, but still). In the end, we would end up dumping leftover coffee down the drain in the morning when we would make a new pot. Now we brew the yucky hazelnut coffee one day, put the left over in the fridge for the next day, and make the regular coffee the next day, doing the same. I get a fresh pot of coffee every other day, and on the off days it's super easy to heat up the fridge coffee - just pour in a pot and heat up on the stove top. It actually ends up taking less time then waiting for a pot to brew. And for my partner who loves iced coffee, the cold hazelnut stuff is perfect for him. Also, every few days we don't have to brew anything because we both have left over coffee, so we can save the beans for another day.

This is what we call compromise... and in this case we both end up winning.

It really is the simple things sometimes.

3 comments:

  1. Here's a way to make good use of the unloved coffee grounds,

    http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/11/oyster-mushrooms-coffee.php

    Grow food on them! Oyster mushrooms, specifically.

    Erik

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  2. Whoa, that's pretty amazing and just not something that I would have thought of! Thanks for the comment Erik... We just dump our coffee grounds in the compost and forget about them, but this is so much better!

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