Trader Joe’s Blue Bali Moon, reviewed

The Blue Bali Moon coffee, which is new at Trader Joe’s this month, has a great, eyecatching look to the packaging. The coffee is from Bali, which is known for mild, yet fairly complex, blends. There isn’t enough land on Bali to really have big coffee estates, and instead the beans tend to come from multiple growers for every batch of Bali-grown coffee.

This particular coffee is a medium-roast. It has a great roasty aroma to it, with hints of a smoky earthiness and a touch of sweetness. In other words, it smells delicious and offers a good, full-bodied flavor that is neither too dark nor too light. This is my current “everyday” coffee to brew in the mornings, as it’s inexpensive and goes well with just about everything.

World Record Irish Coffee

The Guinness Book of World Records seems to be happy to set up a new listing for almost anything, provided you have witnesses and all the proper documentation needed to prove that you really completed a world record task. Case in point, San Francisco’s Buena Vista Cafe poured a world record-sized Irish coffee today, both in celebration of the 56th anniversary of the drink’s invention and in an attempt to set a record for the largest every poured. The actual origin of Irish coffee is [somewhat] hotly contested, but the Buena Vista is one of the venues that lays claim to a creation story.

The typical cocktail is made with hot coffee, spiked with whiskey and sweetened with sugar, that has cream layered on top. The record coffee was built in a 12-gallon, custom-blown glass mug and used 10 liters of whiskey, 10 gallons of coffee, a gallon of cream and about 4 pounds of sugar.

The drink was tested for drinkability by a public health official. Hope he shared!

Ctrl-Alt-Del Tea Cups

A Taiwanese design company came up with these nifty Ctrl-Alt-Del Tea Cups and cleverly named the set “Reset.” They’re not yet for sale, but the cups – and matching circuit board-printed saucers – will probably be a hit with just about anyone who works in an office and likes to sip a cup of tea as a way to reset and get his or her mind off of work for a few minutes.

Sexy foam?

Not Always Right is a very funny site – especially if you have ever had a job that required you to interact with customers in some way – about some of the instances where the customer isn’t, well, right. Few are coffee-related, but this one made me smile

(A woman walks into the coffee shop and orders a latte with “sexy” foam. I make what I thought was a latte with really “sexy” foam.)
Customer: “F***! This isn’t right. I want it with really sexy foam.”
Me: “Okay…”
(I make her another, with lots of really thick foam.)
Customer: “No, no! Sexy foam, really sexy foam!”
Me: “Okay, so less?”
Customer: “No, you know… sexy! Sexy foam!”
(I make her a third drink. This time less foam and more milk.)
Customer: “You don’t get it! I want sexy foam. Really sexy foam!”
Me: *giving up* “I DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT!”

I’ve heard people request some pretty unusual things from baristas in coffee shops, but this is a new one on me. I have no clue what sexy foam means, though I would have guessed extra-thick foam, too, if I were on the bar.

Pumpkin Spice Sauce

One of Starbucks most popular seasonal drinks is the pumpkin spice latte. The drink is described as being made with “pumpkin pie spices” on the company’s website, but the main flavoring component is not a pinch of spice – it’s a pump of Pumpkin Spice Sauce. This thick syrup has a similar consistency to the caramel sauce that tops off their caramel drinks, tastes a lot like pumpkin pie and has a brownish orange color to it. I’m not entirely convinced that simply stirring some pumpkin puree into a cup of coffee would really give your drink a similar effect, but there are two store-bought options that can make sure your cravings for Pumpkin Spiced drinks are filled – without breaking the budget with too many trips to Starbucks. Torani syrup makes a Pumpkin Pie Sauce that might be the brand that Starbucks uses, since most of their syrups come from that company. DaVinci Gourmet also makes a Pumpkin Pie Spice sauce that offers the same, thick consistency.

In both cases, the bottles sold are big. Fortunately, there are at least two months left of pumpkin spice season, so that leaves plenty of time to get through them. And, if you find you have some leftover when the weather starts to warm up, you can always try your hand at blending a Pumpkin Spice Frappuccino.