Peet's Columbia - Review

Columbia by Peet's Coffee

This coffee was already ground, but I had to grind it down to espresso grind for my Americano. The ground coffee is almost black in color. After grinding, the coffee has a very sweet rich aroma that is hard to describe.

The first taste of this coffee has some earthiness to it. The bitterness of the coffee hits right at the tip of the tongue very quickly and then dissipates just as quickly as it came. It definitely has a very clean finish.


This roast is very typical of Peet's Coffee in the fact that it has a very smooth mouth feel and isn't overpowering in its flavor. The one thing I can say about the roasters at Peet’s – they give you a consistent, great coffee every time.

As the coffee cools the bitterness of the coffee doesn't increase noticeably. This would be an excellent coffee to have if you're going to be somewhere and cannot reheat your coffee.

I added sweetener to the coffee and realized I added too much. This blend does not require a lot of sweetener. Be careful if you drink sweetener in your coffee - don't add too much. Add a little, taste and add a little more if needed.

This dark roast coffee would be great for after dinner. It has a very dessert-like flavor when sweetener is added - it definitely would complement just about any dessert you might have with it. This would include any good chocolate recipe - such as the ones in Chocolate Lovers Recipes.

I would rate this coffee at 9.4 to 9.5 on a 10 point scale.

I hope this coffee review will help you in your search for that perfect cup of coffee and as always, may your next cup be your best.

How To Find A Really Good Coffee Grinder Part 2

The Search For An Affordable Quality Coffee Grinder Continues

Step two in purchasing a coffee grinder should always be research. Be realistic when doing this. Stick to your budget and your needs to find the right grinder for your coffee beans.

I decided upon a price point of $100 or less – as this fits my budget best. No, I am not getting rich on this blog – if you want to help, click on the donate button on the left, or buy one of my sponsored products on the blog. (No charge for this Public Service Announcement.)

You should always base your coffee grinder choice upon your needs. Since I grind coffee for French Press, Drip and Espresso, I need coffee a grinder that will do all grinds equally well. Unfortunately, this cuts out a lot of the low cost coffee grinders on the market. One drawback to most low cost coffee grinders is that there is a lot of static in the ground coffee – which can make a big mess on your counter if you aren’t careful. What follows below is a brief selection of some the coffee grinders I looked at in my research for the ideal grinder for my dark roast coffee.

I thought of purchasing another Cuisinart DBM-8 coffee grinder, but based upon my experience with it, I knew that it would not grind coffee well for espresso. This grinder does great on coarse and it is really great on drip grinds, so if you have need for only these type of grinds, it's perfect. I personally recommend it for those that do drip and french press only. You can buy a
Cuisinart DBM-8 grinder here.

I looked at the Kitchenaid Pro Line grinder and was not really happy with the price - after all I'm trying to keep this under $100 and the Pro Line ranges in the $200 price range. According to most of the reviews I read, it is an excellent choice if you have the cash. The entire unit is metal and glass with few plastic parts in it. It is designed to last. You can buy a KitchenAid Pro Line Grinder here.

Another candidate was the Nesco BG-88 Burr Mill - the price is very good, but according to the user reviews, this coffee grinder seems to have a fairly high failure rate.

The Black & Decker CBM210 burr mill has an excellent price - around $30, unfortunately, I saw a few negative reviews and some users said that the finest grind is too big for espresso - so that leaves this one out of my possible selections. If you want a low-cost grinder for drip or french press, You can buy a
CBM210 grinder here.

I looked at the Krups GVX1–14 grinder - this one is a little bit higher-priced. It usually sells for $50. It seems to have some problems with failure rate, static build up in the coffee grounds and overall reliability.

Another grinder I considered was the Cuisinart CBM–18 burr mill.burr mill. The downside to this particular grinder, according to a lot of folks, is the noise level. It is very noisy and so therefore it might not be a great choice if you want to keep your house quiet. The grinder seems to be of reasonable quality - some reviews are saying it grinds great coffee. I don't know how it does on espresso since none of the users said anything about the espresso grind. The noise level is still something you have to consider unless you live alone. If noise is not an issue, you can buy a
Cuisinart CBM-18 grinder here.

I also considered the DeLonghi KG79 burr grinder - at $50 it's a good buy. The thing is that I can't find very many reviews on it so I'm not really sure if it's a really great grinder or if there are just not that many people buying it. You can buy a DeLonghi KG79 grinder here.

Another grinder I'm considering is the Bodum Bistro Burr Grinder. This grinder has a glass receiving container which cuts out the static problem that most of the lower end grinders have. It does have several grind settings and a timer to be able to set the grinding time.The only negative thing I found so far was from one reviewer that said that it does not grind a extremely fine espresso grind for the higher end machines. Since I don't have a higher end machine this is still a possible grinder for my selection – it sells for under $100 online. You can buy a
Bodum® Bistro Burr Coffee Grinder here.

So now I have found several candidates, but most of them have been knocked out of the running because of problems in their manufacturing or the quality of their components.

In the next blog in this series, I will let you know which grinder I chose, why I chose it and my review of it as a match to my criteria.

Thanks for reading, and as always, may your next cup be your best!

How To Find A Really Good Coffee Grinder

The Search For An Affordable Quality Coffee Grinder

My Cuisinart DBM-8 Burr Mill Coffee Grinder is dying. It has produced very nice drip and french press coffee, and with a little help, espresso. The reason I say a little help is that you must run the coffee through the grinder as many as 5 times to achieve an acceptable espresso grind. I even tried to modify the grinder - with some success - it now only takes 2 passes to make espresso ground coffee. It now only runs when you press down on the bean hopper - the safety switches are somehow messed up, so it doesn't run unless you play around with it a lot. Sometimes I just take the second-pass ground coffee and run it through my old Braun push-button blade grinder just to get the job done. For this reason I am shopping for a replacement grinder for my dark roast coffee. I have got to find an excellent low-cost grinder for my coffee beans.

The quality and consistency of the coffee grind is critical to successful coffee preparation. See my blog post on the importance of grind in coffee making here. Although blade grinder may do the job, but for a more consistent grind, you need to use a burr mill grinder. This type of grinder runs slower than a blade type and heats up the coffee less as it grinds, retaining more of the coffee flavor.

There are a few common problems with the low-cost burr grinders:

• Because they are mostly plastic, the ground coffee builds up static in it and tends to spill everywhere


• The low-cost grinders range from around $50 to $200 - a lot more than the blade units


• The failure rate on some of these units seems to be fairly high - read the reviews people give for this info


• Quite a few of them don't produce a very uniform grind - which is why you are trying to buy this kind of grinder in the first place


• If you do find a really good one for the price - it always seems to be out of stock (I wonder why...)


• Finding one that does excellent french press and espresso grind is difficult, at best

In the last week I have discovered several possible replacements - and some really bad ones. In my next post, I will detail what my findings are, and what I am going to use as a new replacement grinder.

I hope this information helps you in your search for great coffee, and as always, may your next cup be the best!

Breakfast Blend by Archer Farms - Review

Review of Archer Farms Breakfast Blend

First taste:
This is supposed to be a milder roast - not even a medium roast, but it has definitely got a bite to it. My first taste of this blend has a definite bitterness to it that is very noticeable. The coffee also has a got a noticeable amount of oil on top of the finished brew. It does not have the flavor depth of a dark roast or medium roast and it is very true to what archer Farms says this roast is.

The flavor is good but it is not as excellent as some of the other coffees I have tasted and reviewed in this blog. This coffee has a smooth mouth feel and a clean finish.


The flavor of the unsweetened blend is definitely okay for the average consumer and it's good enough to keep on hand as a spare coffee in your cabinet.

I would rate this coffee about an 8.4 to 8.5 on a 10 point scale. I would not make it my main coffee just because the flavor doesn't have a great deal of depth.

Since I tend to like dark roast coffee I might be a little bit critical of this particular blend, but It isn't as impressive as some of the other archer coffees that I have drank.

You could do a whole lot worse than this particular blend. It is definitely better than some of the rank-and-file commercial coffees that are out there but it is not to be confused with the top of the top-of-the-line Starbucks, Gevalia or Seattle's Best blends. A is definitely better than traditional Folgers, Maxwell House or other coffees in that genre.

Below is a photo that has some Breakfast Blend next to Starbucks Sumatra for comparison of the roasts - note the difference in color.


Archer Farms has a lot of really nice products, including their coffees. Breakfast Blend is not one of Archer’s best coffees, but it would be good if you are on the road and all you have in a small town is a local Target store.

I hope this review has helped you in the search for that truly good cup of coffee. As always, may your next cup be your best!

Review - Caribou Coffee Mahogany

Mahogany by Caribou Coffee

This roast is a medium dark roast. I tasted this coffee as an Americano. The coffee I purchased was already ground, so I can’t tell you anything about the coffee beans themselves. I can state that when I re-ground it to get it to espresso grind, the coffee stuck together quite well – this indicates a lot of good, quality oils being present in it.

There's a definite earthiness with this blend and the flavor has a pronounced bitterness that has a little bit of a bite to it.
The flavor lingers in your mouth for several seconds - it has a very smooth mouth feel. Due to the earthiness of the coffee, the finish of the coffee comes off a little bit dry.


Since this is my first Caribou Coffee, I didn't quite know what to expect. I will state that I'm pleasantly surprised by the excellence of this coffee. The folks at Caribou Coffee really know what they're doing.

Without sweetener, this coffee has a very pleasant taste and aroma. It is very comforting and relaxing. Despite this being classified as a medium dark roast coffee the flavor comes off more like a true dark roast.

Upon adding adding sweetener to it, I found that the flavor of the coffee became very desert like - almost like drinking a chocolate bar. As I am not a trained coffee taster this is the best way I can describe it.

I'm scale of 9 to 10, I would rate this between 9.1 and 9.2 - it is definitely a coffee that will please almost anyone.

This is a brew that will please almost anyone, even very picky coffee drinkers. If your guests are very picky, add a little sweetener and let them drink it as a dessert coffee.

I hope you found this review beneficial and as always be your next cup be your best!