Tag: Beverages

July 23, 2020March 26, 2021

Black Rifle Coffee: A Product Review

High-Quality, Small-Batch Coffee Beans From Veterans

by Kelly R. Smith

Black Rifle Coffee and destruction on auto. Yeah.

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This article was updated on 03/26/21.

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We have all gone through a lot after the COVID-19 lockdown. Not a lot of us are hitting up Starbucks on the way to the daily grind. Hey, we’re working at home in our PJ’s. But we still need out caffeine fix. Starbucks for me? No. I have Black Rifle Coffee Beans delivered twice a month.

Once a month used to do me right but since the Corona virus lockdown, my wife is working from home and coffee consumption has doubled. So… I went from once a month delivery to two. Is it expensive? Hmm. Not cheap but when you commit to being in the delivery “club” shipping is free. All that’s left is brewing the perfect cup of coffee.

How Good is Black Rifle Coffee?

I would say, “exceptional” but you want more details, yes? OK, they start with the best beans. Then, they don’t roast until they are getting your stuff together. That stuff on the shelf at the grocery store? How long was it sitting? How long before it was roasted and ground? Belay that; this discerning coffee-fiend only uses whole beans. I am not adverse to adding some mint from my garden.

Now that you have the beans you have to use your coffee bean grinder. Most people buy already-ground coffee but I do not for two reasons:

As soon as coffee beans are roasted they start releasing carbon dioxide and begin to slowly decay. The chemicals begin to transform and the cell structure of the bean starts to fall apart, and the best flavors of the beans start to become bitter and dull, rather like life during the pandemic. Grinding the beans accelerates the process.
There are ground-up bugs in that can of pre-ground coffee you bought the other day. The FDA only gets concerned if more than 10 percent or more of green coffee beans are affected. Regarding “Insect filth and insects” the FDA Handbook says, “Average 10% or more by count are insect-infested or insect-damaged.” When I pour those whole beans into the grinder I can verify non-buginess.

Types of Coffee

They offer whole-bean, ground, instant, rounds (pods), canned, and bags (Just Black Cold Brew Packs). Something for everybody. There is more evidence accumulating all the time of the coffee’s health benefits. So pick your favorites and enjoy. The coffee brews are:

Light roast: Silencer Smooth, Gunship
Medium roast: Just Black Cold Brew Packs, Liberty Roast, Caf Coffee Roast, BRCC Instant, Thin Blue Line, AK-47 Espresso Blend, Five Alarm, Just Black
Dark Roast: Freedom Fuel, Blackbeard’s Delight, Beyond Black
Extra dark: Murdered Out (this is the one I brew up for myself and She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed every morning and afternoon). It’s a good habit.

You might notice a theme in both the name of the company and the names of the products. That’s because this is a veteran-owned and operated company. I have to give Black Rifle Coffee high marks — 10 out of 10. Their brew is as good as I’ve ever swilled and their delivery is always on time. The beans are always roasted in small batches unlike the big industrial operations. The video below explains how they are handling the CoronaVirus situation.

References

About the Author:

Photo of Kelly R. Smith Kelly R. Smith is an Air Force veteran and was a commercial carpenter for 20 years before returning to night school at the University of Houston where he earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science. After working at NASA for a few years, he went on to develop software for the transportation, financial, and energy-trading industries. He has been writing, in one capacity or another, since he could hold a pencil. As a freelance writer now, he specializes in producing articles and blog content for a variety of clients. His personal blog is at I Can Fix Up My Home Blog where he muses on many different topics.

March 11, 2020

Caffeine: How Caffeine Created the Modern World by Michael Pollan–a Book Review

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Roasted coffee beans and coffee cherries

Coffee, java, a cup o’ joe, or sniff, sniff, the afternoon tea and scones. The world runs on the caffeine molecule in coffee and to a lesser extent, tea. Tea is the more ceremonial elixir and coffee the more blue collar but underlying of both is… caffeine. And this is the focus of Michael Pollan’s book. As a self-confessed coffee-fiend I found the historical and social angles of his story fascinating. And this is my book review of Caffeine: How Caffeine Created the Modern World.

Whether you make a daily pilgrimage to Starbucks, have a drip coffeepot, or indulge in the slow-motion popular cold-brewing coffee process, you are mainstream if you indulge in coffee or tea. You are an addict but socially and legally benign.

A Brief History of Coffee

Pollan traces the history of coffee and tea consumption from their roots to how they transformed economies, cultures, and the workplace. Coffee as we know it today can trace its heritage back centuries to the ancient coffee forests on the Ethiopian plateau.

Coffee was a social beverage. It was not only enjoyed in homes, but also in the many public coffee houses, called qahveh khaneh, which began to appear in cities across the Near East. The popularity of the coffee houses was unequaled and people frequented them for all kinds of social activity. European travelers to the Near East brought back stories of an unusual dark black beverage. By the 17th century, coffee had made its way to Europe and was becoming popular across the continent.

In the year 1714, the Mayor of Amsterdam presented a gift of a young coffee plant to King Louis XIV of France. The King mandated that it be planted in the Royal Botanical Garden in Paris. Then in 1723, a young navy officer, Gabriel de Clieu, secretly obtained a seedling from the King’s cherished plant. In spite of a difficult voyage, complete with horrendous weather, a saboteur who tried to destroy the seedling, and a pirate attack, he was able to transport it safely to Martinique.

From there, it couldn’t be stopped. Once planted, the seedling did not only thrive, but it’s credited with the spread of over 18 million coffee trees on the island of Martinique in the next 50 years. Even more incredible is that this seedling was the parent of all coffee trees throughout the Caribbean, South, and Central America. You’re welcome Juan Valdez, you imaginary Madison Avenue caricature.

Michael Pollan, an Experiment of One

To research and write this book, Pollan shunned coffee so he could write and document caffeine as, yes, a drug, albeit less harmful than say, meth. He also relates his experience of re-acquainting himself with it at the end of the experiment.

If you are like most of us, you take coffee, tea, soda, and the essential ingredient, caffeine, for granted. But a close reading (or in my case, listening to) of this book will educate and surprise you. From a war-time tie manufacturer who increased production via “coffee-breaks” to how London-coffee houses became the places to be for stock tips, you will be amazed how this caffeine molecule transformed the world. Without you noticing.

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July 17, 2019August 1, 2020

Enjoying Cold Brew Coffee Makers

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“Cold brew coffee” is a trendy item nowadays but the term itself is different from what it was back in the day. My mother used to drink it, but back then it was percolator-brewed coffee that had gone cool and then had ice added.

It’s something quite different today. It’s trendy and gourmet, in other words, pricey. Since it has been going mainstream in local grocery stores in the refrigerated section, and was so expensive, I had to try it. I mean, I’m a coffee fiend, right? Just see my post on making the perfect cup of coffee.

How Cold Brew Coffee Differs from Hot Brew

The first observable difference is that cold brew takes so much longer to make. It’s slow but if you are going to enjoy it on the drive to work, or sitting around in the home office, just start it before you go to bed the night before.

The next thing to note is that it can be strong and caffeine-heavy without the bitterness of a hot brew. This is because the grounds haven’t been hot-water “burned” which results in a cuppa where you can really get the true taste of the beans. It’s slow but the drip is just about one per second so the ice water really does have time to extract all the goodness.

How Much Does Cold Brew Coffee Cost?

The short answer is: whatever you want it to. What I mean to say is that if you have a quality burr-grinder and use whole beans anyway, your day-to-day expense is going to be the same. You should always grind whole beans as you need them because the essential oils that yield the flavor begin to degrade as soon as the grinding is done. This is why commercial ground coffee is vacuum-sealed. But, how long ago? How long has it sat on the grocery store shelf? With all this being said, I drink and recommend Black Rifle Coffee. It’s roasted in small batches, only when you order it.

As far as the cold brew coffee maker is concerned, the cost is all over the place. The functional parts are negligent price-wise but it goes up from there. I suppose some people like to showcase their brewer as a work of kitchen art (and I can appreciate that as a woodworker) but I just want a good cup of Joe. So as a reference, the one I use (pictured above) is thirty-some-odd dollars, but the fancy tall wooden-frame ones with artistic looking flasks get into the hundreds of dollars. I’m currently using the Zulay cold brew coffee maker and I like it very much.

What Coffee Blend to Use?

That’s up to individual taste and I would suggest experimenting. For myself, I use dark or espresso beans and set the coffee grinder to fine. I have experimented with pre-flavored beans. I have also added ground cinnamon and/or chocolate extract. I commonly add some fresh mint from my herb garden which is the perennial part of my raised bed garden.

Keep in mind that additives don’t always have to be just for flavor. Many also offer health benefits. The cinnamon and mint are good examples but I am planning to try some fresh-grated ginger in the near future.

The bottom line is that if you enjoy your coffee, a cold brew coffee maker could be just the thing during the hot summer months. For my experience, buying it off the shelf at the grocers is just wrong, financially. And doing it myself I can customize it as I like.

Looking for more great content? Visit our partner sites:

The Green Frugal

Running Across Texas

I offer article and blog-writing services. Interested? Hire Me!

Did you find this article helpful? Thanks for supporting this free site with a small donation!

Visit Kelly’s profile on Pinterest.

About the author:

Photo of Kelly R. Smith Kelly R. Smith is an Air Force veteran and was a commercial carpenter for 20 years before returning to night school at the University of Houston where he earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science. After working at NASA for a few years, he went on to develop software for the transportation and financial and energy trading industries. He has been writing, in one capacity or another, since he could hold a pencil. As a freelance writer now, he specializes in producing articles and blog content for a variety of clients. His personal blog is at I Can Fix Up My Home Blog where he muses on many different topics.

Tag: Beverages

Black Rifle Coffee: A Product Review

High-Quality, Small-Batch Coffee Beans From Veterans

How Good is Black Rifle Coffee?

Types of Coffee

References

Further Reading

About the Author:

Caffeine: How Caffeine Created the Modern World by Michael Pollan–a Book Review

A Brief History of Coffee

Michael Pollan, an Experiment of One

About the Author:

Enjoying Cold Brew Coffee Makers

How Cold Brew Coffee Differs from Hot Brew

How Much Does Cold Brew Coffee Cost?

What Coffee Blend to Use?

About the author:

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