UPDATE: Mea culpa! Mea culpa! The newly opened shop on our campus where I got a terrible espresso IS NOT PEET'S - it's a Saxby's store.

A new Saxby's Peet's just opened on our campus Friday. It's on the corner across from my parking garage, and I'd never had their coffee before - so I tried a shot this morning when I arrived. Starbucks has clearly set the standard for chain coffee shops, because this shot brought back the harsh memory of the last one I had at one of our multiple campus SBs a long time ago - bitter, bitter, bitter. Light blond crema, little mouth feel, no character - I simply can't imagine why so many people spend so much money on this stuff when they could go to one of the local shops no further away from their homes and offices than the swill stations to which they inexplicably flock.

Hug your barista today. They're like your teeth - you only have to take care of the ones you want to keep...

For grocery store beans, I don't think Peet's is that bad. At least they have a roast date and a guarantee 90 day shelf policy. Not great but it's better than Duncan, 8 O'clock etc IMO. The problem with my local roaster is they don't give out roast dates... that makes it frustrating to us Espresso enthusiasts. So unfortunately mail-order it is and the local business loses the sale...

I guess the real question is does this Peet's roast on premise or are they using coffee shipped in from the west coast?

I strongly doubt that they're roasting on premises at this one - I don't know where they'd be doing it, as all available space appears to be occupied. As I said below, this one opened 3 days ago after months of construction and preparation - so they may have had the beans around for a long time, or they may have come in fresh the day before the opening.

But the problems with my shot this morning go 'way beyond roasting the beans. The dose was tamped with the full weight of the operator (who appeared to exceed 30 pounds by a fair amount...), yet the shot ran fairly fast. The crema was very thin and very light, and it had the bitter / sour taste combo I associate (rightly or wrongly) with tannic acid.

I suppose if the roast were really dark, the grind too coarse and the tamp that heavy to make up for the grind, I could have been tasting sourness from underextraction plus bitterness from a roast darker than this blend should have had - I don't have the depth of experience and practice to know. But for whatever reason, it had every unpleasant characteristic known to the coffee loving world with virtually no redeeming qualities.

Oh, we're talking about a Peet's brick 'n mortar.

Maybe they got a bit too much mortar in my shot....

SonVolt wrote:For grocery store beans, I don't think Peet's is that bad. At least they have a roast date and a guarantee 90 day shelf policy.

Peets may have a 90 day shelf policy but the grocery stores around here certainly don't. Last time I bothered to look I found bags of Peets coffee that were 9-12 MONTHS past the roast/packing date. I called the 800# on the Peets bag once & mentioned this to the Peets rep. They asked for the name of the store & my address. As a thank you for "reporting" the old coffee they sent me a freshly roasted bag of their Major Dickasons blend.

That's pretty cool of them. I shop at Publix - they seem go through their inventory before that would happen. I get my beans from Counter Culture though.

Just to keep in perspective, most folks who patronize Peets or Starbucks are NOT ordering Espresso. The majority order milk drinks, ranging from caps and Lattes the milk shake like drinks or they order non coffee beverages
Those drinks plus accessories are what keep folks coming back.Also the beans for drip "regular" coffee.
For regular coffee, both companies have decent coffee.Starbucks clears out bags, in their stores, after relatively short period of time and I suspect Peets does similar. But those are not the places, IMHO,, for espresso although in some locations there may well be an experienced barista able to pull good shots for customers.

Similarly to the OP several months ago,, shortly after beginning to pull my own espresso shots at home I ordered one at my local Intelligentsia. it was bitter and undrinkable. I knew enough then to know the drink served me was bad. I also noted that Intelligentsia offers a glass of water with their espresso shots? I wonder if that is to wash down the bitternesss?

Barb wrote: I also noted that Intelligentsia offers a glass of water with their espresso shots? I wonder if that is to wash down the bitternesss?

I suspect that Intelligentsia is shooting for an Italian espresso bar vibe with that water. Many espresso bars in Italy (especially Naples, for some reason that I don't know) serve a small glass of water with espresso. You're supposed to drink it before the coffee - drinking it afterward tells the barista that you didn't like the coffee.

Some use the water to both get the most from the espresso and let the barista know what you thought of it: take a sip of water to cleanse your palate, then take a sip of espresso. If it's good, knock back the rest of the water before finishing the coffee so you can savor the finish. If it's drinkable but not great, drink the rest of the coffee followed by the water. And if it's bad, just drink the water.

There's even controversy over whether the water should be still or sparkling, with sparkling getting the nod more often because the "soda" is thought by some to buffer the esophagus against the acidic pH of coffee (about 5). The other side of the argument is that you're replacing the water lost to the diuretic action of caffeine, so still is a more natural choice. In truth (yes, I'm a doctor), sparkling water won't protect your esophagus, coffee isn't acidic enough to cause any problem unless you have reflux esophagitis anyway, and a shot of espresso may squeeze as much water out of your kidneys as it contains but little more.

Next, they'll be removing the chairs from Intelligentsia because Italians don't sit when having their espresso at a coffee bar......