No Foam Please
All Things CoffeeArchive for Roasters
Handsome Coffee at Houndstooth
Who doesn’t want the barista to call out “Handsome Latte for Scott!” as they set the drink on the bar? Why yes, that handsome latte is for me. On my last trip to Houndstooth Coffee, I noticed they had a new espresso bean option (there are usually at least two options)- the “Handsome Roast”.
I ordered a latte and, because I need to cut down the bitterness of coffee a bit more than that, added two brown sugar packets. And that latte was perfect, espresso art and all.
But it turns out that’s not all. After my colleague and I each raved about our Handsome coffee, I got back to the office and not long after, saw this tweet from Phil Gilbert:
RT @1shot4theroad: first @handsomeroaster is on dieline and now @dinnerpartydnld ! my nerd life goals are complete... publicradio.org/columns/dinner…
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Phil Gilbert (@philgilbertsr) January 07, 2012And so it turns out Phil is involved in the Handsome Coffee Roasters project. Kudos to these guys for serving up great product, and for Houndstooth for consistently impressing me with their coffee (no matter what I order). If they aren’t serving it as one of the espresso options when you get there, you can always buy a bag of the Handsome Coffee beans to take with you.
Kohana Coffee Sampler
I just received a Kohana Coffee sampler thanks to the good people at Kohana Coffee here in Austin. It came in cute packaging and includes quite a few samples to try. You can follow Kohana Coffee on twitter as well.
Kohana Sampler, in case
Once opened, an assortment of roasts awaited me – a few medium roasts and a few dark roasts.
Kohana Sampler, Opened
We tried the Kohana Blend medium roast first, on Mother’s Day morning. The first surprise was the different color beans in the bag. The aroma was fantastic, and the coffee was rich and smooth (at least, it was the way I take it, with cream). We made it in a pretty standard drip coffee maker so you don’t need special equipment to enjoy the coffee, but I do want to try it in a french press sometime. I wasn’t the only one raving about the coffee that morning.
Kohana Blend
I’ve tried two of the dark roasts now (including Austin Rocks), and two of the medium roasts (including Kohana blend), and I definitely prefer the medium roasts – they have a rich flavor without any bitterness – although my wife tells me I just may be making the coffee too strong which might put the dark roasts a bit over the top. The Kohana blend is by far my favorite to this point – but we’re only halfway through the samples! Several more to try over the next couple weeks for our weekend coffee.
Look for another update on this space in a few weeks!
Real Simple Boasts about 7 Coffees
Looking for something to change up your coffee routine?
Real Simple (the magazine) boasts about “7 Buzz-Worthy Coffees” – giving some recommendations for coffees you can try to change up your coffee routine…
- Pete’s Coffee Uzuri African Blend
- Counter Culture La Golondrina
- Starbucks Pike Place Roast – I have to admit to liking this one myself. But when I buy beans for regular coffee rather than espresso I like to find something different to buy.
- Jim’s Organic Sweet Love Blend
- Stumptown Coffee Roasters Kenya Gaturiri Reserve – molasses and black currant? count me in.
- illy Whole Bean Coffee Medium Roast – All of the illy coffees are fantastic in my opinion. There is nothing quite like the smell when you crack open a tin of illy coffee. Now, for some reason Real Simple says that you can only get it in “ground” rather than whole bean, but the picture says “whole bean” and I’ve never had trouble finding illy whole bean coffee…
- Gimme! Coffee Rwanda Remera
So, if you’ve been stuck in a rut with your daily coffee routine, try one of these to change up the routine… But I’ll add a couple more ideas to the list:
Ruta Maya - a fantastic organic coffee from right here in Austin. The Cubita (black package) has a great aroma. They’ve been in business in Austin for years, importing from Central America. And then there’s Third Coast Coffee, another good local roaster. Or Kohana Coffee (love their website, haven’t tried the coffee yet!)….
Do you have to move to Austin to find these? Of course not! No doubt there is a small roaster in your town (or two, or three, or ten) to try out. If there’s an organic grocery store (Whole Foods, Sprout, etc) or a Costco, those are good places to start looking for alternatives that might be local (at least, they are good places to look for options in Austin, along with HEB and Central Market).
Happy hunting…
