What do you do when.. aka back up plan for coffee

[RegulatorJohnson]

what do you do when you totally flail and run out of great fresh coffee?

i guess i could go get some tea... eww.

any ok alternatives to ... ummm nothing? i guess 14 day old will be batter than most of what i can get at a store.

just wondering what you guys would suggest as an alternative? for the curiosity mostly.

thanks.

jon

[Cathi]

I've been known to go to the local *$ and speak to the Mgr or Black Apron and ask for the freshest they've got. Other than that, I look for the bag with the farthest sell by date and ask them to split the package if I don't want the entire bag.

Better than the supermarket.

[Spresso_Bean]

I guess it's convenient that I can get fresh Intelligentsia locally at Whole Foods if I need it, but I always keep some green coffee on hand and at times I've roasted some and used it that same day which can be less than ideal but better than nothing. I still have some Ethiopia Idido Misty Valley which to me tastes pretty good even on the day I roast it. Local coffee shops sometimes will sell their fresh beans (the ones they are using, not prepackaged) if you ask, or some do it as part of their regular business.

[cannonfodder]

Roast a half pound of a nice African or fruity Brazil and make press pot a day later. I will use a press pot coffee 24-48 hours after roast where most espresso blends need 4-5 days, or a nice first flush Darjeeling, or beer. Beer is always a good go to beverage.

[HB]

what do you do when you totally flail and run out of great fresh coffee?

I go without, or use it as an excuse to visit Pheasant Creek Coffee.

[RegulatorJohnson]

i kind of meant.

you think you have 1 and 1/2 jars of coffee left.

it turns out you have a jar with about one shot in it. your wife needs coffee, today, ASAP. what do you do?

go to a trusted cafe?
drink tea?
bake some scones for a distraction?
any other hilarious suggestions?

luckily i have not had to deal with such and emergency. i was curious to see what everyone does if they need to go with something less than ideal. or god forbid go without or worse leave the house. - my god! the horror!

thanks.

jon

[mdoberenz]

I guess a funny situation for me was when I had guests in the house and only had enough 2 day old home roasted Yirg for myself that particular morning - maybe enough for my wife. The question I reflected on was do my guests really have any palate development. They know I take coffee seriously but would they really be able to tell. So I made my coffee and made a separate french press of a month old blend that someone stuck in the freezer . A couple of weeks before I had diagnosed it as having used cigarette butt nuances. My reflection on my guest's palate led to the realization that I would be more disappointed if they did not realize the Yirg was top quality fresh and worth closing your eyes to. Did I really need to impress them with coffee or was my own daily cup more important. So they got the cigarette butts. No comments were made at least.

[Jasonian]

Man.. this makes me wonder if I should buy a gun with a single bullet..

you know... just in case something like this ever actually DOES happen.

God Forbid!

[cannonfodder]

Man.. this makes me wonder if I should buy a gun with a single bullet..

you know... just in case something like this ever actually DOES happen.

God Forbid!

Just unhook the wires from your heating element, clamp them to your earlobes and stand barefoot in a puddle on concrete, then hit the power. It is much easer to clean up afterwards.

[Jasonian]

...noted.

[Stuggi]

I usually use some of the old supermarket bought beans that have accumulated. OR I just have a beer as Cannonfodder suggested. I like Corona, with a slice of lime/lemon in the bottleneck.

[pauljolly65]

it turns out you have a jar with about one shot in it. your wife needs coffee, today, ASAP. what do you do?

go to a trusted cafe?
drink tea?
bake some scones for a distraction?
any other hilarious suggestions?

Take three Excedrins in the morning, shifting to (decaf) Tylenol in the afternoon, and carry on.

Paul

[CoffeeOwl]

(...)So they got the cigarette butts. No comments were made at least.

In Poland there is a proverb: 'Guest at home, God at home'.... or rather 'Guest at home, water in the soup' it goes

[Fullsack]

...It is much easer to clean up afterwards.

I'm not so sure about that

[MrMonkey]

I was just in this situation last week. Luckily, a local grocery chain (New Seasons) carries coffee from a local roaster (Stumptown). In the store pre-packaged Stumptown coffee bags have the roast date stamped on their bottom. Imagine my surprise when I picked up a bag of Hair Bender on the grocery shelf that had been roasted on that very same day. Coffee in the grocery that is too fresh for immediate use! I looked around a bit an found another bag of Hair Bender 4 days post-roast. Ahhhhh!

[ppopp]

Use it as an excuse to hit a local coffee shop. First, it gets you out of the house. A little interaction with other humans can be a good thing every now and then, even if it is early in the morning. Second, trying someone else's coffee now and then can tell you a lot about your own. It will probably remind you how good your own coffee really is, but if you're lucky enough to have a good coffee shop close to your house, you can actually learn something. I'm lucky enought to have a very good shop just a couple of blocks away (Amante on north Broadway in Boulder), and I stopped in a couple of months ago after more than a year's absence. They had switched to a much lighter espresso roast, and it was awesome. It started roasting some lighter espresso blends and I'm really enjoying them now. I get a little grumpy about the price of coffee when I go out, but sometimes it's worth it.

[ppopp]

I was just in this situation last week. Luckily, a local grocery chain (New Seasons) carries coffee from a local roaster (Stumptown). In the store pre-packaged Stumptown coffee bags have the roast date stamped on their bottom. Imagine my surprise when I picked up a bag of Hair Bender on the grocery shelf that had been roasted on that very same day. Coffee in the grocery that is too fresh for immediate use! I looked around a bit an found another bag of Hair Bender 4 days post-roast. Ahhhhh!

MrMonkey - Do you really think Stumptown is roasting the beans, packaging them, and getting the to the supermarkets and on the shelf in the same day. Sounds a little fishy to me.

[MrMonkey]

MrMonkey - Do you really think Stumptown is roasting the beans, packaging them, and getting the to the supermarkets and on the shelf in the same day. Sounds a little fishy to me.

I may be too trusting, but I have no reason to doubt either of these companies (New Seasons or Stumptown). The 'roasted on' date is stamped on the bottom of the bag. On Stumptown's web site has a page describing their wholesale business. It says "We roast every day in small batches, and if you're a wholesale account, we deliver your coffee a little later the same day it's roasted.".

Do note that the grocery carries Stumptown roasted coffee in bulk bins like you would see in any other grocery. I know nothing about this coffee. The bags I sometimes purchase are pre-packaged and at a somewhat higher price. In my experience, the taste from these pre-packaged bags is in line with the stamped roast date. For comparison I have also picked up their coffee at the roasting site.

[ppopp]

If they're roasting every day, I guess it make sense that they want to get the stock out the door. Kudos to them, and to the market for getting it on the shelf that fast as well.

I remember when working in a supermarket during high school and college that some small and local suppliers that sold directly to the market (ie not through a distributor) would often have their delivery guys stock the shelf in the market and then possibly leave a small amount of overstock. That way they knew the product was out on the shelves for sale. Maybe Stumptown is doing the same thing.

Either way, you're lucky to have easy access to fresh-roasted beans. I used to get mine from a local roaster, but wide variations in the amount of crema I got and variations in the grind setting required to get a timely pull suggested they weren't always being honest with their roast dates. Drove me to home roasting, which I now thank them for.