the coffee snob of yesteryear

way back when i was a young, budding coffee snob -- a senior in college -- i drank peets coffee. i bought the stuff whole bean, ground it in my whirlyblade grinder, and french pressed it until it had had enough.

i considered myself a snob because i drank only peets, brewed it myself, and drank it from a fancy thermos.

ah, the proto-snobbery of my departed youth. how little i knew, then.

i bought some peets beans over the weekend, for reasons that will not become clear in this missive. a pound of "colombian". in the store, that felt a little weird. i'm no longer used to beans being described simply by their origin country -- i also want to know from which farm they originate, which lot, when they were purchased, and so on. still, i figured the colombians would be the least charred of the beans. back in my youth, i liked the dark dark dark roasted coffee that is now what americans -- weaned on *$ -- expect "good coffee" to taste like. but for the last 2 weeks i've been drinking very lightly roasted panama and yirgacheffe and mysore. i like my coffee lightly roasted now. i like the acidy flavors that you won't get with a peet's roast.

my purchase entitled me to a free cup of whatever the coffee of the day was that day. it was one of their blends, I don't recall which. it was awful.

it had good body, nice and heavy, which I like. but it tasted like charcoal, not coffee. I couldn't believe that I used to like this stuff.

today, when I finally got around to brewing a cup of the "colombian", I was not as offended. as I had guessed, it was a slightly lighter roast (only slightly), and the charcoal was not as prominent. sadly, neither was any other flavor. it was weak and bland and none too fresh. fresher than the *$ i once brewed, but not anything compared to the day-old roasts that I'm now used to.

i used to consider peets as a "backup" source in case my roaster broke (which is sort of the case at the moment). they have a rep for "picking beans that stand up to their roasts" and a decent standard of freshness.

sadly (or happily) my quality standards have risen so high that peet's can no longer meet them.

i'll have to find another backup.