Hey, folks. It's been a while. Accordingly, we should probably reprint our mission statement:
Or something like that.
Your Trimethyldioxypurist has been very happy with his coffee-related life; we're utilizing our good brewer, good water, freshly roasted beans, and somewhat decent burr grinder to consistently enjoy our coffee at home. And when we feel like going out for an espresso drink, we tend to hit the favorites we've talked about in the past.
In other words, not much has changed. We've settled into a comfortable, happy caffeine routine. Great for us, not so great in terms of prolific writing. We've become a creature of habit, if you will.
Speaking of "habit" -- we were a little intrigued when we heard about San Francisco-based roaster "Meth Coffee," who had enough media coverage on launch day that we actually heard somebody on news radio talking about it.
The brand's provocative name is underscored by its marketing scheme: an anonymous roaster ("The Roaster") who transmits his missives from some underground bunker or safehouse, describing the strange and wonderful effects from his lastest concoctions.
Yeah, it's a gimmick. It struck us at first as silly and poser-ish; specialty coffee is a sector that as whole is attempting to be taken seriously; this kind of silliness sort of undermines those efforts. The schtick also enforces a message that the "buzz" is what's most important in a brew--a sentiment that many specialty coffee aficionados and purveyors try to counter daily.
On the positive side, if you dig a little deeper into the company's Web site, you'll find some pretty amusing stuff (we were tickled by the recipe for "sock coffee," for instance). Also, the notion of a special "buzz" is backed up by ingredients -- Meth Coffee contains some Yerba Mate as well, which is known to give a caffeine-like boost. Therefore, a combination conceptually could be very successful in helping one "get up and go."
In any case, we hoped that our actual tasting of the coffee would mitigate our initial negative sentiments about the branding. A company rep was kind enough to send us a 10 oz. sample, which usually retails for $12.
