Saturday is for Coffee: Save the Good Coffee for Those Who Appreciate It
by Rocket FinanceToday’s article is a guest post from I’ve Paid for This Twice Already. Paid Twice is the leader of the snowflake revolution. A movement that I wholeheartedly endorse – I’m just irritated that I didn’t think of it first. Enjoy the post and subscribe to her feed:
I am an occasional coffee drinker. I adore the stuff, but I usually save it for a special occasion. My spouse, however, was a HUGE diet soda drinker, specifically diet Mountain Dew. He’s addicted to the caffeine high, and with two small children who keep us on our toes, I couldn’t really blame him.
About a month ago, in an effort to lower his caffeine consumption, my spouse switched from diet soda to coffee. He doesn’t like coffee all that much, so he only drinks it for the caffeine, versus the diet soda which he loves and will keep drinking all day just because. It has cut down his overall intake significantly and that’s a good thing all around.
So now we have coffee in the house all the time. Last summer, I had won 4 lbs of gourmet “Gimme! Coffee” coffee from a giveaway at ProBlogger, and I had put them in the freezer for when we had company who would appreciate a good cup of coffee. However, now that my spouse is drinking coffee 5 days a week, I pulled out a pound of Gimme! Coffee’s Kenya to share with him, because why buy coffee when you already have some for free? (He had been drinking a Dunkin Donuts Cinnamon Spice Blend his brother gave him for Christmas.) The next day, I ground up some of the Kenya beans, and sent my spouse on his way to work with freshly ground, freshly brewed, extraordinary coffee. And believe me, it is extraordinary. I don’t think I have had coffee this good in my entire life.
I eagerly awaited my spouse’s return from work to see what he thought of the coffee. Certainly, he would love it and I would be a hero for winning such great coffee! Well, he came home, and broke the news to me that in fact, he didn’t like it at all. But, it was free so he was willing to drink it – maybe I could mix it with some of the Dunkin Donuts blend he liked so much to dilute the taste.
WHAT? We are talking $14/lb coffee and you want me to dilute it so you can’t taste it? Uh – no. I’ll keep my coffee, thank you very much, and you can keep drinking cheap coffee. In fact, we had some coffee from Aldi’s in the freezer from the last time my parents visited (they love that stuff) and I gave it to my spouse and he liked it BETTER than the Kenya. So I’ll buy the $1.99/lb coffee for him then. And hoard my Kenya til it is all gone. I told my mom I would share it with her when she visits this spring. Otherwise, it is mine.
Don’t waste good coffee on those who can’t appreciate it. There’s a limit to what frugality entails. Even if it was free, it is better to just buy some cheap coffee for those who don’t care so you can enjoy the good stuff. Keep it for yourself. 😉
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Paid Twice, I could not agree more. This story reminds me of that promiscuous character, Elaine, from Seinfeld who screened her boyfriends to see if they were “sponge-worthy”.
We save our favorite coffee for those who will appreciate it.
17 Responses to “Saturday is for Coffee: Save the Good Coffee for Those Who Appreciate It”
By Lisa Spinelli on Feb 9, 2008 | Reply
I decided to get some Dunkin Donuts coffee black once (Diet #452). It tasted like a cup of hot water! And that’s not even that cheap!
What I’ve since found out is that some coffees are specifically processed to be used with cream and sugar. So, if you get a regular coffee at DD, it tastes pretty good, and you get to enjoy the sugar high along with the caffeine high!
Lisa
By rocketc on Feb 9, 2008 | Reply
I am partial to the darkest regular coffee possibe – no cream, no sugar.
By Anne on Feb 10, 2008 | Reply
I wouldn’t drink coffee that had been in your freezer for 6 months, either.
By rocketc on Feb 10, 2008 | Reply
Really? I don’t find too much trouble with coffee that has been in the freezer for that long, especially if it is unground.
By paidtwice on Feb 11, 2008 | Reply
Luckily for me, I *will* drink coffee that has been in my freezer, unground, for 6 months. And love it. 🙂
That’s not my spouse’s issue – he loved coffee that was in the freezer, *ground*, for the past 8 months. He just doesn’t like coffee that actually tastes like coffee. It is all about the caffeine.
By deepali on Feb 11, 2008 | Reply
I admit it, I’m a coffee snob. I even paid a visit to a finca in Nicaragua and almost bought the entire harvest (you haven’t had good coffee until you’ve had single-origin from the mountains of central america).
Freezing coffee does reduce the complexity of the flavor a bit, but I’m not sure our taste buds are so refined that we’d notice a huge difference… Especially if it was amazing to begin with.
DD coffee tastes good with milk and sugar, but it’s not really *coffee*, it’s a coffee drink. Semantics? 🙂
By mjmcinto on Feb 11, 2008 | Reply
It might not be that he will only like cheap coffee. It might be that he just doesn’t like Kenyan coffee. I love my coffee, and am a bit of a snob, but I’m not a fan of Kenyan coffee (sorry). The very best coffee I have had comes form the volcanic mountains in Guatemala. I LOVE that stuff. I went down there for work once and people said that they were supposed to have really good coffee, so I bought a few pounds to bring back (one for me and one for my brother in law). I thoroughly enjoyed drinking it black (which was uncommon), and my brother in law had people lining up outside his office for it.
I was drinking maxwell house and folgers at the time, so it was a drastic improvement, but I’ve tried others, and it just doesn’t rival it. I usually get Guatemalan beans and grind it at home. While it is good, it doesn’t compare to the bag I brought back with me from Guatemala….oh how I wish I could buy it again *sigh*
By rocketc on Feb 11, 2008 | Reply
Unfortunately, my wife has influenced my palette to become significantly more refined. . . I can drink just about anything, but I don’t like it as much as I used to. I love the really dark exotic flavors.
By paidtwice on Feb 11, 2008 | Reply
I don’t think I have as refined taste in coffee as most of you. 🙂
He may just not be a fan of Kenyan coffee. I do however, hold it against him (and he knows this) that he enjoys “flavored” coffee. The whole idea of selling “Cinnamon Spice” coffee irks me. lol
I am sad you do not like Kenyan coffee. 🙂 I do not have the budget to go explore more varieties than I have in my freezer at the moment. I have Sumatran to try next. lol
By rocketc on Feb 11, 2008 | Reply
Send some my way…
By Mrs. Micah on Feb 11, 2008 | Reply
Yes, well don’t waste any on me either. I don’t want to drink peoples’ “good” coffee since I’m not very much a coffee person. I feel the same about chocolate. Anyone who doesn’t enjoy the darker stuff should be given the crappy milk chocolate. Serves ’em right. 😉
Plus, they’ll be happy and I’ll be happy.
By rocketc on Feb 12, 2008 | Reply
I’m with you on chocolate. I can’t eat milk chocolate anymore. . . you should have tasted the stuff I brought back from Germany. . .
By Flaime on Feb 13, 2008 | Reply
@Mrs Micah & rocketc,
You might be surprised to find that Cooks Illustrated ran a tasting for milk chocolate and their tasters liked the highest rated milk chocolates (Scharffenberger and a couple of French brands) almost as much as dark chocolate. And more than dark chocolate in smoe cooking applications (like frosting).
By rocketc on Feb 13, 2008 | Reply
I would like to be one of those tasters. 🙂
I don’t think that I have ever tasted milk chocolate that I would prefer over even the worst dark chocolate.
By Wedding Fort Lauderdale on Aug 18, 2008 | Reply
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