tea

Coffee Date: Oakland Coffee Works-Gardenista Blend

/ James P. Crowley / Leave a comment

Coffee Date is a new column that features discussions of beverages stemming from leaves and beans.  Whether you brew your own or need a hip barista pouring it in front of you, we’ve got you covered for brands to try at home, coffee shops with some personality, and what you should try or avoid from your regular coffee chains.

Green Day’s Mike Dirnt doesn’t hide his passion for food.  This became obvious when he bought and opened Rudy’s Can’t Fail Cafe in Oakland.  When he teamed up with Oakland Coffee Works, it should have been no surprise.  Somewhat similar to Green Day’s recent Revolution Radio, the Gardenista Blend from Oakland Coffee is a pretty solid, reliable formula.

This particular blend has organic beans from Honduras and Colombia, and it’s pretty good.  There isn’t anything that stands out about this coffee, whether it’s drank black or with cream (as I prefer), but it’s still solid.  It is a little dry tasting, which is very nice in this case.  This was the company’s medium roast blend.  I’d be more interested in tasting a different blend, as it seems they change them up relatively frequently, but this was fine.
Gardenista feels like “Bang Bang” or “Revolution Radio” from Green Day’s most recent album.  They sound and feel good, but they’re not “Still Breathing,” and they’re certainly not Dookie.

Coffee Date: Harney & Son’s Japanese Sencha

/ James P. Crowley / Leave a comment

Coffee Date is a new column that features discussions of beverages stemming from leaves and beans.  Whether you brew your own or need a hip barista pouring it in front of you, we’ve got you covered for brands to try at home, coffee shops with some personality, and what you should try or avoid from your regular coffee chains.

I’m not a tea drinker.  That’s not to say that I don’t drink tea.  I can enjoy a chamomile or some green tea, but neither is my go to.  I simply like Barry’s Gold Blend tea.  That’s my go to, if I’m writing music, reading, or just want an alternative to coffee.  Every now and then, I’ll try something else, if someone’s offering tea, but for the most part, I’m faithful to Barry’s.  That being said, if I’m going to drink any other tea, it’s typically a green tea or chamomile, which is why I tried Harney & Son’s Japanese Sencha green tea.

Harney & Son’s have a number of teas that would probably be fitting as I read Brief Interviews With Hideous Men by David Foster Wallace.  Tea and post-modern literature seem to go hand in hand.  The Japanese Sencha seems especially fitting since it mostly just gave me a headache.  Both scent and taste wise, there were hints of grassy flavors.  It was quite nice to smell and taste, but it also had something of a thick taste to it, which I think caused my headache.  This was fitting for reading stories about despicable people, but inappropriate in the sense that Wallace is fucking dense.

The Japanese Sencha tea wouldn’t really be something I’d itch to try again, but I wouldn’t completely knock it.  That being said, I wouldn’t drink it while reading post-postmodernist literature again.

 

James Crowley is on Twitter.

Coffee Date: Starbucks’s Cascara Latte

/ James P. Crowley / Leave a comment

Coffee Date is a new column that features discussions of beverages stemming from leaves and beans.  Whether you brew your own or need a hip barista pouring it in front of you, we’ve got you covered for brands to try at home, coffee shops with some personality, and what you should try or avoid from your regular coffee chains.

 

For our inaugural column, it seems fitting to write about the latest from our coffee overlords, Starbucks.  Living in a suburban town, I drink a lot of Starbucks.  It’s the McDonalds of coffee, except I would bring a date to Starbucks.  The only difference between the two is that I’m willing to try the new drinks at Starbucks, where I normally stay within what I know at the Golden Arches, and some of The Bucks’s latest goodies have fallen in my favor.

Last night was the first time I’d been in Starbucks during 2017, and I couldn’t help but notice the Butterscotch latte.  It was nice, but the Green Mermaid gave top billing to something called the Cascara Latte.  “Cascara” isn’t the most inviting word, and I had no idea what it meant.  Armed with the task of listening to AFI’s The Blood Album, the Cascara latte is a surprisingly subtle drink.

Doing a bit of research, Cascara is actually a tea-like drink made from the skin of coffee beans.  Often referred to as “coffee cherry tea,” it’s made from a part that’s usually thrown away from coffee beans.  It’s slowly gaining popularity, and Starbucks seems to have jumped on the trend just as it’s on an upward tick.

Like so many Starbucks beverages, the first few sips are scorching hot, too much so to get a taste more than burnt, which is also the note you get on the nose, but the drink sweetens as it goes down.  The flavor of the coffee is very light and a little smoky, like a freshly extinguished tea candle.  It also seems that the drink has some of the cherry coffee tea leaves rested on the top, which provide a suiting texture atop the foam.  Cascara is easily sweeter than a latte, but not obnoxiously so like a vanilla or pumpkin spice latte.  The sweetness is actually very pleasant compared to a regular old latte.  This isn’t the type of drink that Starbucks’ younger Frappuccino demographic will be craving, but it can be something refreshing to brighten a morning commute for those with softer taste buds[1].

Perhaps, the Cascara Latte belongs in the same category as cappuccinos or espressos.  It isn’t the best choice to have with breakfast or on the way to work, but it’s calm and light enough to have after dinner.  Not something to return to regularly, but it’s there when it needs to be.

 

 

James Crowley is on Twitter.

 

[1] This may be influenced by my decision to switch my music from AFI to Japandroids.