The Official Coffee of The Otter Creek Camphouse

      I have liked in or many cases loved coffee for a very long time. Now, I won't claim to be a coffee connoisseur or anything of the sort and I definitely won't claim to have the sophisticated palette necessary to be a paid expert in the act of coffee cupping (or "tasting" to us lay folks). I'm pretty sure my palette couldn't even spell sophisticated if palettes could spell. It likes Waffle House too much to be able to do that. But, I do love coffee. I will also say that I really do wish coffee tasted
 like it smelled; that would be truly amazing. However, I have never found that to be the case no matter the place, price, roasting or brewing technique, etc. I will also quickly say I don't know everything about coffee, but I do know a little about how it is grown and what is required to grow it, but have read in the past few months about people growing it in places where I never thought coffee would grow. I also know a little about how the coffee bean is harvested and then how it makes it's way from being a fruit, the coffee cherry, into the very recognizable "bean" that we all know.

A coffee orchard in Hawaii.

          And for those who don't know much about how coffee makes its way from where it is grown to the confines of your morning cup, I'll give you a very quick and simple primer. I picked most of it up from reading and listening to things here and there over the years, but here are several neat "coffee" websites: Coffee Crossroads, The Coffee Review, and Fair Trade USA. And if you already know about coffee, you probably know much more than I do. Coffee was first discovered in Ethiopia and has been enjoyed by humans since the tenth century. Most all coffee is grown at high altitude, in rich, dark soils, that receives plenty of rainfall, but not all coffee has to be grown this way, but most is. The main variable for growing coffee is that it must be grown in a region where the temperature doesn't vary too widely or where there are no weather extremes. However, most coffee is grown in South America, mid-Africa, and several parts of Southeast Asia with the country of Brazil producing the largest crop in the world.

A clump of ripe coffee cherries.
      

      As seen in pictures above, coffee is usually grown in a grove, much like oranges, apples, pecans, etc. A tree, of either two main varieties, produces a fruit referred to as a cherry, several times a year. And odd item about the coffee tree is in how often the cherry is produced on the tree. A mature coffee tree can produce ripe cherries as often as 3-4 times a year, so it is possible for there to be blooms, developing cherries, and ripe cherries all on the same tree. The coffee tree is an evergreen and holds onto its large, waxy leaves all year long. And as already mentioned, most coffee farms or plantations are in places where the elevation is above 1000 ft. The famous coffee's of Colombia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Hawaii, and Costa Rica are all grown in the regions of those countries that contain its highest mountain ranges.
 

The interior of a coffee cherry. The "bean" we roast and brew our coffee from is actually the seed or pit of the coffee cherry.

      The fruit that is produced by the coffee tree is called a cherry. It is an edible fruit and in the countries where coffee is grown, they also use the cherry to produce juices and other food items from the edible fruit. But...But...But this post is not about that really. It is about our official daily coffee, so I'll try to get to that a little more quickly! But let's finish the harvesting bit first.

      Once the cherry is harvested, it is either chosen for it's use as a fruit or it's to be used to produce the beverage we call coffee or in Spanish, café. Once it has been chosen to be used for coffee production, the cherry is washed and then dried out in several different ways. And once it is dry, the outer part of the cherry is discarded and the seed or pit of the cherry is saved. This is very similar to what we all think of when someone eats a regular cherry; except that the pit is saved for growing a new tree or thrown away rather than for use to make coffee with. The seed of the cherry that is produced by the coffee tree is what will eventually become the "bean" that we all equate with the beverage we call coffee.

A sample of dried and roasted coffee beans.

        Once the seed has been removed from the fleshy part of the cherry fruit, it is set aside and put through another round of drying techniques which may include time in a drying oven. And then depending on the brew that the coffee will be used for, it is roasted till it appears burnt, which is what gives it that classic, dark appearance that we are all familiar with. The darker the bean, the longer it was roasted, but this does not actually mean anything when it comes to bean's caffeine content. The lighter the bean or the lighter the roast, the more caffeine content that the coffee will hold and vice versa. This last bit is not what we usually think; especially since espresso comes from one of the darkest roasts for the coffee bean, but the caffeine content of espresso has to do with proportions and brewing techniques rather than roasting procedures.



      My love for "coffee" products has traveled the taste spectrum as far as coffee products are concerned, but I would say that I've been a coffee lover since I was in elementary school. Now when I was in those elementary school days, I wasn't guzzling that cup of joe every morning as a ritual, but would occasionally get to drink a cup while staying with my father's parents and always felt so grown up when I held my cup and drank it with my grandpa in the early morning hours before everyone else was awake. My coffee consisted of milk that had a hint of coffee in it and it sort of stayed that way for a longer period of times than I'd like to say. After those days, I drifted into the sweet and flavored drinks that also had a hint of coffee in them, but about five years ago or so, my desire for flavors and sweet tasting coffee fled me and now, I'm a dash or so of half and half and mostly coffee guy. I don't think I'll make it to the "strong and black" stage that a lot of people pride themselves as being, but I do like the coffee to be strong and taste like it is supposed to rather than the many favored varieties than many people like. And I'm not a decaf guy like so many I know. I don't actually get this, but I also don't get the non-alcoholic beer thing either, but that isn't a topic in this post. Caffeine never really does much for me really. I just like a hot beverage in the morning or with dessert. I could drink an espresso and then go to sleep, but that could be because I have a two and half year old and nothing to do with caffeine content.

    Coffee is actually very important to us and is how we, Mel and I, like to begin each day. The days we look forward to the most are the days that contain the slowest of mornings where we can leisurely drink several cups of coffee a piece and move into the day rather than dive headlong into it and sprint the whole day through. 99% of the time, we live in the second type of day. And, we are also pot coffee people. I know the trend has been the Keurig machines where you can choose to have that wonderful single cup of coffee, but we don't drink a cup of coffee, we drink cups of coffee. And to add to the specialness of coffee,  we actually went to a coffee shop after dinner on our first "official" date. Mel ordered hot chocolate and I ordered some drink titled something like, The Edge, or something like that. It was a flavored coffee. My how things have changed!

    Ever since we have been married, I have been on the search for the perfect coffee brand to call "our" coffee. And believe it or not, I have tried to be somewhat methodical about my approach to this in the same way you'd attempt to study something using the infamous Scientific Method. I started out just sort of buying this brand and then another one after we had gotten married and when money was a little easier to come by. I originally made it my goal to buy a pound of coffee from independent coffee houses we would go to and enjoy their coffee, but this isn't a normal thing for most people or at least people where we live or have lived. Rather, most people are stuck with the brands at their nearby grocery stores.  So, I guess, I'll finish this post in much the same way I make my students write out their "Scientific Method Projects" each year when we study it. Here we go:

1. Problem or Observable Phenomenon:

     Mel and I like coffee. We enjoy drinking it seven days a week. We need a coffee that you can be purchased in a larger quantity than a single serving, can be found in a wide variety of places, and can be found at an agreeable price.

2. Questions:

     How much coffee do we actually go through in a week? A month? How much can we afford to spend? Can we find this coffee in a wide variety of places? Is there a brand that offers an economical coffee that isn't roasted and prepared the same way as brands like Folgers's, Maxwell House, etc.?

3. Hypothesis:

    Knowing that we like the darker roasted coffee varieties and knowing that we usually go through about 2-3 lbs. of coffee a month, I believe we would need to settle for an economical, espresso or French Roast varieties. I'm not completely sure about the brand that we'll like, due to the large quantity of brands at the local supermarket.

4. Tests and Collection of Data:

     I have tested this for over six and a half years. When we were first married, we bought coffee at will and price was not really a concern. When we moved to Macon in 2008, we had decided that we'd like to buy at least a pound of coffee a month from our favorite coffee shop and it cost us about $16 a lb. I tried so hard to get us to like Community Coffee because it stood out as the lone, "Southern" brand, but Mel and to be honest, I did not take to it. We both love Starbucks (go ahead and snicker, we're typical white folks drinking our "Bucks" and driving our single child to a state park in our Subaru.) and our favorite blends of theirs are, French Roast, and their, Pike Place Blend. However, not everywhere sells Starbucks coffee and as of two years ago, it seems a little crazy to spend almost $30 a month on coffee that we brew at home. We also really like Jittery Joe's coffee, a small Georgia coffee company, but their pound coffee is almost $15 a pound. I have also had Intelligentsia Coffee and it is very good, but it should be at almost $20 a pound.

     So, after many years, and many, many purchases, we finally settled on the type of coffee that fit all our needs and wants. If I were to go with you to your local supermarket, somewhere like Publix, Kroger, or Wal-Mart, I really could tell you how almost every variety of coffee that they offer tastes or which other type it could be compared to. I'm in no way bragging. I am only trying to let you know that we really did try almost every brand that is offered at a normal grocery store; so much so that Mel begged me about a year ago to just settle on a single brand. And so I did, and the brand we chose is....

The bright yellow bag of Café Bustelo!

  

5. Conclusion:

 



          We chose Café Bustelo for a variety of reasons and here are a few. Café Bustelo is a dark roasted coffee made from Arabica coffee beans. It brews a strong, robust beverage that is medium to high in it's caffeine content. And the price is just right, at around $3-$4 dollars for 10 oz. ,it is a great deal. It is one of the cheapest coffee varieties on the coffee aisle. And actually right now, you can buy 2.5 lbs. or 40 oz. of Café Bustelo for just shy of $20 at Wal-Mart. I know, I know, evil Wal-Mart. I'll start shopping somewhere else when teachers in America start making the same as shift managers at McDonald's or Chic-fil-a. That's a great price considering it is just a few dollars shy of a single pound of your favorite Starbucks variety And often times, you can catch a, "2 for $6", sale or sometimes even cheaper. And although, Café Bustelo is made from Arabica coffee beans, like Folgers's and Maxwell House, just from a single cup, you can tell that a higher grade of bean was used in its preparation. And to sort of seal it's acceptance as "our" coffee, Café Bustelo can be found in all three grocery stores in the town we live in and when we lived in Macon, it could be found in every grocery store there save one.

      And to make things even better, Café Bustelo has a pretty good history. It is coffee that is labeled a "Cuban" coffee, which describes how it is roasted and the rich and dark brew that it yields, but it could also be called that since it was founded by a Spanish immigrant who went to Cuba to learn the coffee business, married a Cuban lady, immigrated to New York via Puerto Rico, and started his own coffee business in the area of NYC known as Spanish Harlem using the methods he had learned in Cuba. And by 1931, Café Bustelo had fans that reached far past the perimeters of East Harlem. I'm not sure if its popularity had reached The Peach State, but I know it has today.

Café Bustelo is for lovers, right?

 

 

    I'm pretty sure we'll keep using Café Bustelo for quite awhile. It is easy to find, fits our budget, tastes great, is consistent in taste and price, and beats the majority of coffee's of equal or greater value. If you ever stop by Otter Creek Camphouse and find a warm mug of coffee sitting in from of you on a lazy Saturday morning, you can probably rest assured that it's Café Bustelo and there is a whole pot of it waiting to be drunk and plenty more of it to brew in case one pot is not enough.

 

   I know there are many other varieties of coffee. I know because we've tried them once or probably, more than once. Yes, Publix brand coffee is great, but you can't get it cheaper than $6. Yes, Starbuck's roasts great coffee, but a pound is going to run you at least $8 if it's on sale and $8 won't buy you anything where we live. A pound of the ole' Bucks starts at $11 where we live. And yes, you can buy 30 pounds of Folgers for about fifty cent, but tell me the last time you've enjoyed a cup of that. And please don't tell me about the fair trade varieties. Yes, I'm a believer in that, but I'll jump straight for a cup of fair trade coffee when I see you at a rally marching for the fair trade of Apple products, J Crew clothes, or your Kavu purse. Give Café Bustelo a try. I know you'll like it. And if you don't, then you're only out $3; which is $6.50 less than your last movie ticket on the 300th installment of the Fast and Furious or the Expendables 35. I'm pretty sure they brought John Wayne and Charlie Chaplin back for that one, but it actually would have been better if they'd had done so.  

 

 

 

   Happy reading, happy brewing, and happy, slow Saturday mornings full of coffee, good food, and time to watch more than one episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse or time to eat a long breakfast outside and let the morning fade into the afternoon.

 

 

DAVID