So About That King Harv Guy… – A Guest Post by Ashen Baron
Life can be odd sometimes. If you’d told me I’d drink half a pot of coffee every morning seven years ago, the last time I tried it on account of moving from overnight to early morning shift, I’d have told you that you were crazy. Same for a few other accomplishments in the meantime, like moving halfway across the country but those are stories for another time.
Anyway, the last time I tried early morning coffee it left me nauseous and wondering how anyone could stand anything other than some of the fancy more candy than coffee frappes at a few places in the old hometown. Of course I took note of the posts our hostess did promoting King Harv’s Imperial Coffees and got a chuckle out of their Astonishing Coffee Stories but never thought I’d be drinking any of their products. Yet years later I found myself dragging some mornings and saw where some people who intermittent fast (something I continue to do to keep my weight down) drank black coffee and thought I’d give King Harv’s a chance with the encouragement of a few Huns.
Needless to say it was the right decision! I started with Saturn from their Planets line, which sounded good in terms of taste from the roasting and blending and was noted as being low acidity. I figured something like that would be a good starting point, went for it, and was hooked! I quickly figured out that it was the creamer and sugar that I had been using that was making me sick and black coffee, especially of this quality, was not only great for getting me ready for an early shift at my previous employer but it’s actually awesome to drink! It took me a bit to find a proportion of coffee to water that worked for me but since then King Harv’s been a staple of my mornings! I do drink coffee from other businesses too – I’ll be covering Harmony Coffee Roasters’ signature offerings at some point – but the King has so much to offer it’s hard to go elsewhere!
Anyway, as I drank more of their coffee I began sharing my thoughts on it on the Discord Sarah mentions sometimes. Me being able to taste the flavor notes in the black coffee that King Harv’s (and other companies I’ve bought from, including Harmony) is apparently just unusual enough among the Huns (and what does that tell you about my brand of Odd =P) that some of them – a certain minotaur in particular – had been asking me to compile them into some form of writing for public consumption! I’m still not sure if a blog of my own, or a book, is a good idea but guest posts for our hostess are certainly something I can do so here we are! Since that’s one of their smaller sections I figure I’d better start with the one that proved most useful for those mornings where I had to drag myself out of bed at 4:00 AM for work: High Caffeine!
One last thing before we get to the good stuff. My coffee setup isn’t anything special by any means. It’s a Black and Decker drip that I’ve had around for a while. The manual says it’s a 2015 model but I could have sworn my mom and I brought it from our old house to my previous one. I do plan to invest in a grinder and French Press at some point but I’ve got several things to take care of before then. Needless to say I always order drip grind and the most I can do to help the coffee’s flavor is use filtered water with a ZeroWater pitcher, which I do. I prefer using 2 tbsp coffee to every 8 oz of water when I make coffee, too. I’m sure there are things I could do to make it better but for now this suits me just fine. Also, even though it’s going to be some time before I can do a post on the Planets line and give all of you proper details on it, Saturn remains my prime recommendation for newbies to King Harv’s or to coffee in general. It really does get everything right. Also, as part of this series I did ask Sarah to share any thoughts she might have about the coffees in this and any future posts in her usual editor’s notes style. Coffee taste is a very subjective thing, after all. Anyway, on to the high-octane fun!
Bengal Tiger – This one’s for the light roast fans who need something fierce in the morning! It’s from South India, hence the name, and King Harv’s describes it as being rustic and earthy with a strong hint of single malt scotch in the finish. Not being much of a drinker I wouldn’t know about whether or not it tastes like scotch. Rather I got more of a vanilla flavor from it after drinking it. It definitely passed the test for getting me going at 4:00 AM regardless, and at a little under half a pot at that! I recommended it to a few of my former co-workers who favor light roasts, and they both survived and enjoyed it, even if it wasn’t the sort of thing one could have on a regular basis! All in all, it gets good marks from me and some others I know!
Camel Spider – The subject of an Astonishing Coffee Story, I figured I could use something out of their high caffeine line when Jupiter proved to be more suitable for a relaxing day with the cats than for a long shift at my previous employer. I figured why not give it a try? This was my first of this line and I did proceed with caution, not going up to my eventual not quite half a pot until I was sure it wouldn’t be too much. Don’t take that to mean that Camel Spider is lacking in that area, though! It’s a great coffee for those days when you really have to get things done. It’s got a nice, pleasant flavor to it as well, with the best description I can think of is good, high-quality coffee that didn’t taste bitter to me at all. Don’t just take my word for it, though, I recommended it to a serious coffee fiend that I used to work with and it quickly became his favorite out of King Harv’s selection! It was definitely worth the trouble the King Harv’s crew went through to get it so give it a drink! I do plan on ordering this one again at some point.
Nuclear – Just the name alone invokes all sorts of feelings and mental imagery relating to raw power, doesn’t it? Some people would look at the name in awe and terror, wondering just who would drink that, and others would be itching to put it through their brewing method of choice in order to take on the megatons of caffeine challenge! So how did I fare? The best way I can describe this one is nothing fancy but it gets the job done. It had the strength needed to get me through one of those long work days and was safe for me to drink at not quite half a pot for whatever that says about my caffeine tolerance. The flavor I’d say is more normal coffee than anything, for lack of better phrasing at the moment. The others are more flavorful if that’s important to you but if you want no frills coffee to wake you up, or perhaps one that might work better with your creamer or other flavor of choice, this is the one for you!
Rocket Fuel – Heh… Where to start on this one? If there’s any coffee that made me think “Holy (scat), this is too much!” and “But it’s so, so damn good!” at the same time it’s this one! I actually did have to cut back to about a quarter of a pot because of how strong it was! Then again, I was able to drink my usual amount after completing the move so who knows how much that was affecting me? But yeah, this one is far and away the strongest out of this lineup, at least in the way it hit me back then. It doesn’t disappoint in terms of flavor, either! Curiously it had more of a chocolate flavor to it in using the old hometown’s water but more of a blueberry flavor using water from my new home. One of the Huns (Holly Chism) actually noticed a blueberry smell when I shared a small bag’s worth with her knowing this is exactly the sort of coffee she could use so this one has two of us vouching for its awesome taste and strength! It’s not one for the faint-hearted but if you can manage the caffeine kick it’s absolutely worth it!
Zaté – This one is a blend of never specified South American coffees with yerba maté added in for extra strength. King Harv’s describes it as being good for concentration so I figured it was worrth a shot and it certainly was! It does get you going and I do feel like my mental processes were notably sharper. It had a vanilla taste to me as well when I drank it yet when I shared my last few bits with a co-worker he said he didn’t taste that, saying it was more of a high quality coffee flavor to him. He thoroughly enjoyed it, though! That said, for those who prefer grinding their own, this one only comes pre-ground because of the yerba maté so keep that in mind. It’s another one I’d be happy to try again at some point!
That’s it for the King’s high-octane lineup! If you need something good to get you going for a long day you won’t be disappointed! King Harv’s offers a variety pack if you’re not sure what to try, though Zaté isn’t included. I should also note that these half pound variety packs do count towards their monthly buy three pounds, get a free half pound promotion so if you order the variety pack and the Zaté you’d be eligible for whichever one they’re offering that month. In any case, happy caffeination!
According To Hoyt 
I enjoy the Hurricane Blend. 😀
That’s a good one for sure! The ’21 version was definitely more of a slow day with the cats coffee and it’s what I expected from the ’22 version, too, but that one had an awesome mix of taste and strength, too! I’ll definitely be covering it later on. 🙂
I don’t drink King Harv because Canada, but I do live on cappuccino until around 2pm.
Currently drinking Kicking Horse Coffee’s “Grizzly Claw” blend, a black-as-the-inside-of-your-hat dark roast. I like a dark roast, particularly in espresso. As the name implies, this one does not go down quietly but fights the whole way. ~:D Raawr!
Maker of choice is the Rocket Appartamento. We bully this poor little machine and it keeps coming back for more. Highly recommend, IF you’re not afraid to take things apart and fix them. Sometimes it breaks. 😡
I’ve had their Kick Ass and Three Sisters coffees before. Deeelicious, especially the Kick Ass. I like the dark roasts best.
It’s not always to be found on the supermarket shelves here in the US, however, and is a bit on the expensive side (not compared to King Harv’s, but to the mass-market and budget beans), so we end up drinking mostly Starbucks. Some might scoff, but it’s decently priced and also consistently decent tasting (at least the way I make it; not a big fan of drip coffee brewed at the bucks). Their coffee roasting style seems to go from dark roast to darker, which I like.
Sounds like that might be one worth trying once I start my new job then! I don’t have to get up quite as early as I used to and the shifts aren’t as long either but I probably could use at least one high octane coffee in the mix.
Love the King’s low-acidity line!!!!
They do have some good ones in that line and like I mentioned that’s where I started because of my past experiences. Most everything I’ve had outside of that line has been good, though, with only Neptune being a little harder on my stomach than the others. Still not enough to keep me from enjoying it, though!
Flyby c4c. Executing Flight Pattern Alpha.
Whoosh
Waves.
Waves back.
As good as this coffee sounds, broke college kid is broke. Or at least close enough that I don’t want to risk too many unnecessary expenditures. Someday, when I’m rich…
The Reader remembers college coffee. He would get the cheapest stuff he could find and brew it with a percolator (drip coffee makers were new and insanely expensive in the early 70s) heated with a single burner electric heater with no heat control. He also rarely cleaned the pot. It got the Reader through college…
And that’s all you really need, isn’t it? I’ve got a really big coffee maker (12 cups) that was on sale through Bed Bath & Beyond. I haven’t used it since early fall semester, as too much caffeine during the shift period made me feel very ill for most of the afternoon/evening. (‘Shift period’ referring to the time when I’m still acclimating to living somewhere other than home.)
As Jeff Foxworthy puts it, you’re, “Suave shampoo poor.” I was, “Kraft Macaroni and Cheese poor,” in college, but that was before Ramen noodles, when Kraft (with the powdered cheese) was a quarter a box.
I tried making some for nostalgia sake a while back…couldn’t force it down.
My collage go to was egg & cheddar cheese sandwich.
Ramen at $1.00 for ten packs, made in a hotpot. Somebody gave me an old Mr. Coffee and I had that junior and senior year.
My college apartment shopped together. There was a then new idea of warehouse grocery stores. One of our major sources of food were Generic frozen pot pies. they were in a white box with Turkey or Chicken Pop Pie in big black letters. It was mostly sauce which a turkey or chicken had been waved through. They were 3/$1 and 3 bucks fed three early twenties guys quite happily. The Big meal of the weak was Saturday night spaghetti and meatballs using the cheapest hamburg that was available I think it was $.99/lb and likely 75% lean. I was dubious that that meat had ever been near a cow…
Eh, they appeased some Karen by changing the recipe
My first drip maker was a bog-standard Mr. Coffee, purchased some time in the later 70s. The current drip machine is a Cuisineart, but it’s too high for most people to use comfortably. The Kitchenaid makers were easier to use, but I’ve had reliability problems with them, as well as the current crop of Mr. Coffees. OTOH, low end drip machines do a decent job, or cone filters and funnels if you want to go drip on the cheap. (College was a small percolator heated by the hotplate from a popcorn maker. It worked and was better than what could be had from the vending machine in the dorm at midnight. Shudder.)
I got into fancy bean coffees for several years, but some of the thrill was lost when news came out that the amount of Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee sold was considerably larger than the amount actually produced. $SPOUSE isn’t a coffee fanatic, and we’ll go with preground in cans. Yeah, we’re barbarians that way. 🙂
I got into mocha as the first cup every morning. Went through several iterations, but we now do 1 tablespoon of a modified Alton Brown hot cocoa recipe (substitute Sucralose for the Real Sugar(tm), milk powder and cocoa. No flavorings.) per mug of coffee. We’re getting Premier Roaster’s Classic Roast from the restaurant supply (US Foods Chef’store). Current price is $13 for a 48 ounce can. It’s Good Enough for my jaded taste buds. /shrug
ahhhh, Reader must remember the Maxwell House percolator song- which later morphed into a short lived, but fun, semi disco radio hit. Strange days have found us.
I remember how that goes, too, no worries! If I didn’t have some major things paid off, even after moving, I’m not sure I’d be able to keep up a King Harv’s habit either though hopefully I’d still have enough to get a bag or two from some other places. That said, I’d be willing to share a bit of whatever I have available at LibertyCon provided we both make it! Just not sure what that’s going to be yet, there’s just so much good stuff to try!
Squints. Is that a loop di loop?
Among other things, yes. I think I might hold back on Flight Pattern Alpha in the future, though. The consecutive loop di loops followed by barrel rolls are really throwing me for a loop.
You can probably tell by the clumsy nature of that pun that I still haven’t recovered my balance.
The Reader deems that pun as ‘safe from carp’.
Comment for coffee
It’s a subject that’s always worth talking about!
An enthusiastic thumbs up for King Harv’s coffees! Too expensive for everyday drinkage on my budget, but the last two Christmases we’ve ordered one of their bundle deals and enjoyed the heck out of them for a few months afterwards. This year’s was the planetary coffees, last year’s was the regional coffees. Some were more to my taste than others, but all excellent. If I could afford it, I’d never drink anything else.
That said, there was one very strange dud: the Pluto roast. It smelled rather strongly of berries right out of the bag—cherries, I thought, but maybe someone else would say blueberries—which carried over into a flavor that the wife and I found very unpleasant. Not sure if anyone else has encountered that.
There was one other roast (can’t remember which) that also acquired a bit of a berry-like flavor, but a mild one that didn’t bother me; it hadn’t occurred to me that it could have been an interaction with our water, which comes from a deep aquifer and is so mineralized it’s almost crunchy.
Anyway, three cheers for good coffee and three more for King Harv’s!
Glad you like them, too! Like I told Lady Eleanor, if I didn’t have some major things already paid off, even after moving, it’d be difficult to keep up a King Harv’s habit myself. Of course it helps that it’s just me and the kitties, and unlike Holly B’s Tru my cats don’t try to raid my coffee (I saw L take one whiff of it when I was letting a mug cool on the counter and she noped out) so I can make my orders last for quite some time. On Pluto, the guy I recommended the Camel Spider to actually enjoyed that one when he bought the Planets variety pack for himself and I tried it on his recommendation. I didn’t taste cherries specifically I don’t think but it definitely had a fruit flavor to it and I enjoyed it just fine. It was strong enough for mornings at the old job, too. Camel Spider, Uranus, and Pluto ended up being my former co-worker’s top three for the record.
Camel Spider came as a bonus package when we ordered the whole Planets thing for Christmas. I don’t remember anything specific about it (as is the case for most of them), but I do remember that we liked it.
I’ve heard strange things about Camel Spiders so I don’t know if I want to drink a coffee made from them. [Very Big Crazy Grin]
According to the story they’re not the ingredients, rather they’re the harvesters and guardians of the fine plants used in this fine coffee. 😉
LOL 😆
That’s how I ended up trying Two Cats, getting a full pound of it split across two half-pound bags from all the coffee I ordered for Christmas presents. It threw me a bit since I went with a pound of it for one of my cousins-in-law but I did appreciate it, both as a bonus and a coffee!
Never liked coffee, don’t hate it just never picked it up. Earl Grey when I need it, which ain’t often. I don’t use cream or sugar, just honey. To those of you who live on it, more power to you, you’re keeping farmers employed somewhere. I don’t get all upset at people who buy high-end or Gourmet coffee, nor do I care. It is someone selling their dream and making a buck at it by giving people what they want.
Ya gots to love capitalism at work.
I didn’t drink coffee until well after college. Then late one night had a cup with 1/2&1/2. Hooked ever since. OTOH hubby does ask when he sees me mixing in the 1/2&1/2 when we travel “A little coffee with your cream?” It isn’t quite that bad. But I am not shy about adding the cream. (No sugar.) I haven’t pulled the trigger on ordering anything from King’s Harvey Coffee, yet. Preferred blend is the Hawaiian version sold in bulk by Costco.
I understand completely and won’t tell you you’re a bad person for not liking it, no worries! 🙂 A friend of mine with similar tastes to you did enjoy the Saturn, though.
I kind of grew up drinking coffee. Dad worked 3rd shift and would take a thermos of it (Usually made from A&P Bokar, a dark roast) with him. I started trying it out in probably 4th grade and became to some degree addicted to it to help me be awake. Always amused folks at restaurants that this middle schooler would end dinner with coffee with his Dad.
I do want to try the King Harv sometime but it is a bit steep even for my tastes. Long ago I used to enjoy George Howell’s The Coffee Connection. They were VERY serious small roasters, and bought from many various coffee plantations direct. Their best was a medium roast (slightly past full city roast) from the La Minita plantation in Columbia of what was called peaberry (a slight mutation of basic coffee stock provided 1 bean/cherry). It had a magnificent aroma when brewed. Ran about $13 a pound which was serious money in the late 80’s early 90’s. Sadly Mr Howell ended up selling out to Starbucks in the mid 90’s and within a year the quality dropped greatly as Starbucks vied to be the McDonalds of High end coffee.
Understandable in those circumstances. I haven’t worked that shift in a while but I remember it and part of why Ox and I have our coffee discussions is because he works it. It’s always a shame when one of the big guys buys up a little one and turns it into just another cog, too, isn’t it? Glares at EA in particular
Yeah I suspect Mr. Howell wanted to do something else and was offered a fair sum of money as he was the main stock holder in Coffee Connection and had a dozen outlets in Boston and the suburbs. Starbucks was coming in and in some places taking some of his business I suspect. In the early 1990s Starbucks was still more of a small coffee vendor. I also suspect they made promises (not binding) about keeping Coffee Connection as a subsidiary but reneged on that a couple years down the road.
As for 3rd shift my Dad did it for two reasons. 1) the default was first/ second swinng shift, 2 weeks first, 2 weeks second. My Dads circadian rythms couldn’t cope with that.
2) There was a fair shift differential for 3rd shift on the order of $ 0.50/hr . In the 60s/70s that was real money especially if he got time and a half overtime or Sunday doubletime. even the $20 it added was almost the groceries for a week. I have great respect for the Blue collar folks of that (and any) time. I have worked 60 hr weeks in my youth and it is NOT sustainable absolutely exhausting.
Understandable in Mr. Howell’s case, though it’s still sad when it happens. Trying to keep out of the excessive overtime grind was a big thing when I was job searching here (my previous employer could get brutal with it though they were far from the worst) and I lucked out with the one I got an offer from. Here’s hoping the last bit of pre-employment stuff clears tomorrow and I can start Monday!
It is horrible for programmers. The next to last job was bad enough before company was bought. When that company was circling the drain it got really, really, bad. That was the one mark against me. Salaried, I refused to play that game. Oh, I put in the 9 hours, eating at my desk, but no way was I putting in the “70 hours” they wanted. My last job however was 8/day and we were expected to take lunch. Did I push hours. Well that whole “I’ve almost got it” got in the way. But my fault. (Retired now. All done with that nonsense.)
Congratulations on the new job. Hope it works out for you.
So I’ve heard. Some of the horror stories I’ve heard from the video game industry in particular makes me glad any dreams I had of working there never even got close to coming true! Writing may very well end up being the best way to tell the stories I want, though when it comes to the special abilities, various equipment options, and such stuck in my head that doesn’t fit a novel easily, well… That’s going to be trickier to work with. Thanks, hopefully it does work out well! Which does bring me to another reason to be wary of overtime, now I’ve got the very real possibility of Sarah showing up on my doorstep with a slipper regarding my writing as well as training the kitties to serve as editors and supervisors!
Amen. I applied to a lot of computer gaming software companies. (Eugene has had a lot of them off and on. Startups make it big with a couple of releases, get acquired. Rinse & Repeat.) Never even got acknowledge the resume was received. A blessing indeed. Another area I never got an acknowledge of resumes sent was Norton. They seem to need new people every 18 months or so. Translation “burnout”. Again blessings.
Then again, maybe they’re having similar problems to the ‘Microtel’ QC department in ‘Monster Hunter Memoirs: Grunge’ where the worst software bugs invoke demons that eat the staff… 😛
LOL
King Harv’s is definitely out of our normal budget, especially as we go through about two pounds a week (apparently all six kids inherited my “caffiene is a sleep aid” genetics).
Keeping it in mind for gift-giving, though!
Having tried them on Mrs. Hoyt’s reccy they have become a go-to Christmas gift, which means a nice discount! Enough to afford a holiday treat for the fam.
And much easier to get than the Brazilian stuff that was our usual special treat.
I do think I’m going to go with some different places for my family’s coffee gifts this year to mix things up a bit, but knowing King Harv’s they’ll come up with enough interesting and quirky labeled coffee to where they’ll end up in the Christmas mix anyway! I can definitely see one of my cousins liking the new Nicaraguan Lake Shark’s label!
Yeah, I can only imagine how much that’d cost you guys, especially since you have to fend off Tru sometimes too! They do indeed make for good gifts, though, as my family can tell you!
Where, O where can these wondrous elixirs be found? I live in Montana and have never seen King Harv’s coffee, but I definitely need to try some.
FWIW, I roast my own or stick to Cafe Bustello for the Moka Pot, so caffeine levels are not an issue!
Click on the picture. Should take you there.
MomRed likes the King Harvey, but she prefers more flavored coffees (Viennese Cinnamon, Seville Orange) because of her messed-up sense of taste and smell. She also likes the Harmony Roasters blends she’s tried thus far.
I stick with tea unless it’s a cappucino.
If Harmony doesn’t end up being my next coffee guest post it’ll come up very soon after that! The only thing with that is I’m not sure if I want to try O Frother Where Art Though with my usual setup since I don’t have espresso equipment or not since I’m not sure how much of a difference that’s going to make with the final flavor. I do plan to get into their flavored coffees at some point, too, since the owner confirmed they’re still good for my fast periods and I could use a refresher on Rhapsody before I write the post too.
I have never drunk coffee since Grandma offered me a sip at the breakfast table when I was six or so. I couldn’t figure out how adults could drink something so nasty. For my caffeine fix I had soda, but for some reason I have never liked the taste of Coca-Cola. Instead, Diet Coke tickles my taste buds in all the right ways. Strangely, I prefer Pepsi over the taste of Diet Pepsi, but Diet Coke tastes best to me, especially with vanilla in it. When Coca-Cola Freestyle machines became a thing, a large Diet Coke Vanilla became my standard morning drink.
Probably coincidentally I was diagnosed with kidney cancer five years ago and had one of my kidneys removed. It was caught early, Stage 1, and as it hadn’t spread outside my kidney I haven’t required any treatment beyond the removal. I just get a CT scan or an ultrasound done every year to make sure it hasn’t reappeared.
I still have a large Diet Coke Vanilla every morning that I can.
Just goes to show there’s no accounting for taste.
I loved coffee the first time I tried it — but much later than age 6. I grew up Mormon and had never tasted coffee until I first tried it at age 20. The people I was hanging out with at the time wanted to go to great lengths to flavor and soften it, but I told them not to; I’d either like it or not on its own merits. Tried it black, then added some creamer, and voila! Love at first…er, second…sip. And this was Denny’s coffee, mind you, so it only got better from there.
As for Pepsi, blech. It’s got a type of sweetness that just sits wrong on my tongue. Diet Coke is acceptable, but only because I’m not allowed to have the real thing with sugar in it. Coke Zero is where it’s at: no sugar, and it tastes almost like the real thing. Dr. Pepper is best of all, but the diet version is weak and sad.
Indeed, our tastes seem to be the inverse of one another: I can’t stand Coke Zero because it tastes too much like regular Coke. Since I’m now type-2 diabetic I have to stick to sugar free, and since I don’t like Diet Pepsi, if I can’t get Diet Coke I usually go with Diet Dr. Pepper. I rather enjoy the candy-like flavor.
My second favorite soda choice though is sugar-free root beer with vanilla. It tastes like a root beer float without the ice cream.
I can deal with Diet Coke. And Diet Dr Pepper. And even “Goat Choke” Diet Mountain Dew. But, to me, Diet Pepsi tastes like they cleaned the machine… but failed to rinse the cleaning fluid out of it.
The only way I can stand Diet Mountain Dew is mixed 50:50 with regular Mountain Dew. Now that I only drink it once or twice a week (with lunch at work) I just stick to regular.
I tried coffee and said “Why would anybody want to drink something that tastes this bad?”
I remember the smell of Monday Morning Navy Coffee. The big coffee pot on the mess deck ran continuously all weekend long, they just kept adding grounds and hot water, more grounds and more hot water. By Monday morning the stuff was strong enough to crawl out of the spigot and assault people.
My experience with coffee as a kid was more milk than coffee, though I got out of it later and felt the same way you did until I found King Harv’s. If those sodas are what works for you, though, I’m glad you enjoy them, though I’m sorry to hear about your battle with cancer. Glad you’re still around to comment, though!
My issue with coffee was, for some time, it smelled wonderful… and the actual taste never lived up to that. I suspect poor percolator use and/or letting it sit for far too long, or simple poor brewing (not clean machinery maybe?). Then I was given a cup made with a French Press… by someone who knew what he was doing. It tasted as good as it smelled.
Now, eventually I gave in and drank what was available, and the Keurig for all its detractors was a step up in many ways – it’s ways “the first cup” as it were. maybe not ideal, but far from ‘Breakroom Coffee’ which is almost universally lousy. Of course, I now have a French Press and if I have the time, well, that’s the way.
Cold brew can also be good and I’ve done that (when I’ve had room in the fridge and the time…). I hear some “pour over” thing can be good, have yet to try such. Not sure if that would be any gain, but I am still curious.
I’ve only had pour over once during my house hunting trip at one of the local places and the taste was definitely more pronounced with that. Of course that shop in particular is a little out of my way but I have been meaning to try the other coffee they serve in that manner.
I’m a shifter. If I don’t get at least a half a pot of coffee every day, I involuntarily turn into an especially bad tempered wolverine. Consider those roasted and steeped beans to be wolverine-bane.
🙂
Had a friend in college whose wife was someone that no one talked to, ever, until she was well into her second cup of coffee.
When the Reader got married many years ago, his better half attempted to share the first coffee of the morning with the Reader. After discovering that the Reader didn’t like human contact of any form until coffee had been assimilated, the Reader and better half arrived at the formula that has successfully kept us married for 41 years – the Reader gets up, makes coffee, drinks same and then takes coffee to better half in bed a half hour or so later.
Heh, I don’t need caffeine to that extent, but I do get why it happens! My morning half a pot always helps me quite a bit each day!
I love their Geisha blend and The Blanket Fort.
…I might be a bit biased about The Blanket Fort blend.
I also love both of those.
Both are fine choices indeed, and I actually had Blanket Fort this morning! It would have been more appropriate to drink yesterday given what I was up to but I needed the strongest one available for that and that was Harmony’s Baba Yetu! I made up for it by having Blanket Fort this morning, though! 🙂
BTW, @AshenBaron, re: the tasting notes and the one that supposedly has a whiskey note in the finish… I rarely if ever get the notes they’re talking about in coffee, but it seems a do have a reasonable palate for whiskey, as I can catch most of the flavor and finish notes there. And if you’re getting a bit of a vanilla note from that particular coffee, you might be pretty close to the whiskey-like aspect of it. Good bourbon will often have vanilla and/or butterscotch in the finish (and every time I think of it, I want to take a sip…bourbon is alcohol’s ultimate form).
Thanks for clarifying that. I thought that might be the case but since my alcohol consumption is limited to a very, very sporadic round of junmai ginjo sake I didn’t know for sure. Sounds like Bengal Tiger might be worth trying for you at some point, then, provided the caffeine isn’t overwhelming!
Cool. I’ll remember that for the next time I get a batch of King Harv’s.
Oh yeah, somewhere in here you mentioned that you hadn’t yet tried the Mars or Earth covfefes… Mars was a bit subdued for my taste (I like the big-aroma, dark roasts best), but the wife loved it. Earth was wonderful — maybe my favorite of the planets. If Ziltoid had found it when he demanded Earth’s finest bean, a lot of mayhem could’ve been avoided.
Heh, been a while since I’ve heard anything featuring Devin Townsend! I’ll give that a listen at some point. Those two are indeed the only two of the Planets line I have left to try. My co-worker who ordered the Planets pack said Mars felt a little weak to him (we are talking about a serious coffee fiend, granted) and he wasn’t too keen on Earth either but we’ll see how I like them! I’m not sure about the aroma part but out of their dark roasts I did enjoy Neptune pretty well, the Costa Rican Tarrazu was pretty good too (and met the approval of said coffee fiend, too), and me and a few coworkers I served it to during some housework absolutely loved their Peruvian! Not sure how the peaberry version stacks up next to the normal but I’m guessing it’s good stuff!
I’m gonna buy some of that coffee or I’m gonna end up drinking whiskey. Pacwest bank is “exploring strategic options.” Some of the denizens here might remember I posted exactly those words about First Republic bank just two weeks ago. Now we own the trash and JPMorgan owns the good stuff.
Feels like 2007/8 again. Can you say “contained.” I knew you could,
Contained like a bus load of suger-loaded preschoolers at the zoo?
Oh, no.
Oh yes.
Hook, boy.
One more quarter-percent internet raise, with a “signal,” for “pause.”
And CBS cheerfully shilling for LGB, blaming Republicans for any possible default. Grrrrrrrrrrr.
It’s entirely, beyond any shadow of any doubt, the Fed’s fault that this is happening. Again denizens might remember that I said that QE was not money printing and that the inflation was supply, pent up demand, and Biden,
Money printing is loans, there were no loans What QE did was stuff massive deposits into the system that have to go somewhere. The big banks simply collected interest from the Fed, the small ones bought UST’ and when the interest rates went up they had huge losses. JP Morgan can earn 5% from the Fed and pay 0, small banks can’t.
Since it’s all the Feds fault, they’ll be looking for even more power. that’s what they did in 2008, which was also their fault.
I’m just disgusted,
The Reader thinks that the bankers who stuffed their ears with cotton so that they wouldn’t hear the Fed yelling ‘we’re going to raise interest rates’ last year share a bit of the blame. They wouldn’t have made as much money if they had hedged against a rate rise but they’d still have their bank.
Not really, there wasn’t anything else to buy and they had to buy something. Assets and liabilities have to balance,
The Fed pushed on the string too far.
Isn’t the normal hedge to shorten the maturity curve of your interest earning investments to hedge rising rates?
Yep, trouble was the yield on the short stuff was effectively zero. We’re in a deflationary, yes deflationary, environment that the Fed is fighting by this QE stuff. They’ve been at it since 2008 and the economy still hasn’t returned to trend. Probably never will because world demographics. They pushed everyone out the risk curve. the Fed invented all these deposits, the idea was the banks would lend it out, but no one wanted to borrow. The money had to go somewhere, it went into long term treasuries paying almost nothing.
Watch the pensions. They’re likely next. They had to go way out on the curve and into dubious equity allocations in order to have any chance of fulfilling their obligations. Won’t work because the expected return on just about everything is well below average. reality is a stone cold bitch I’m afraid, The actuaries are probably having kittens.
Which is why companies are getting out of traditional pensions. Instead looking a tech companies that never got into pensions and went 100% 401(k). I know one traditional pension took all their existing employees, the contribution made toward pension for individual and deposited into their 401(k). Those individuals are now out of that pension. Not sure how retired collecting pensions were handled (I think the money was turned over to someone else to administer). I do know what happened to those like me who had a pension coming, but weren’t of age to collect (age 65).
I had 4 options, at age 60, when this all started. 1) Lump sum at age 65. 2) Full monthly at age 65. 3) Discounted lump sum, now. 4) Discounted monthly, now. I took option #4. So far have collected almost $10,000. Break even on lump sum is age 72, another 6 years. I will collect more than the lump sum annuity (odds are). Mom is 88. Her parents lived into their mid-90s as did, their siblings. Besides it is fun to say on loan apps “Pension $1400/year” (always get “you marked the wrong box, should it be monthly?” Nope. Hey it was $1200/year when I vested (this was job #4 on my list prior post).
Private businesses began exiting pensions when accounting standards were changed to require them to recognize the present value of the their future pension payouts as a CURRENT liability. It made every big company’s books look bad all at once. Most pensions remaining are in the public sector where accounting is a joke and the taxpayers are on the hook.
And that’s why I had a pension… for a few weeks. The company made a Big Deal of having a Right, Proper, Old Fashion PENSION…. and then said, “Whoops, things changed (or the accountants looked at it…) and we can’t do this. We’re cashing everyone out. Roll over into 401(k) or whatever if you like.” As it was almost nothing, I simply cashed it out. It might have just paid one smaller bill. I no longer call.
Nor even RE-call…. (ox slow, yes? Yes).
That explains the pension stuff with Agilent. My HP pension had carried over to Agilent when they were spun off, and I kept it there when I was laid off in the 2000 Dot Com Bust.
A few years later, they contacted me, and I chose the option of having the lump sum put into my IRA. Because I’d been less than thrilled with the people running my 401k, that also went into the IRA.
Part of the IRA setup was looking at financial institutions in Flyover Falls. Seems the regional banks all failed over several years, while the national one we had been with pulled some crap that caused us to yank our business. That one got acquired by a larger national bank. Sigh. OTOH, the credit unions fared better. The two large regionals are fine, the smaller regional merged (I think as equals, for values of) with a statewide, while the tiny public employee CU just got bought by one of the large regionals. Never was eligible for the tiny one, but I’d go by it on other business. Never busy. Ever.
Why sister and BIL don’t have a pension, but have very large IRA’s now. They each had a lifetime career with HP. Golden parachuted out 15 or 20 years ago (?). BIL easily qualified. Sister barely qualified. They didn’t figure HP would get far enough down the “volunteer” list to get to sister. HP accepted everyone on the list, then went on to announce first layoffs ever.
We have almost everything with Schwab, that we self direct. Hubby left part of his 401(k), now IRA, with Fidelity so he could assess Fidelity’s financial tools. He had no problem with how the 401(k), and pension (while they still had full control), because he was on the pension board (one of 3 employees). Also where he learned how to assess stuff (20 year internship with multiple financial managers). The board consisted of 3 employees, 3 managers, and two professional financial managers (one for pension, one for 401(k)s). The professionals were swapped out every few years.
Dealing with Fidelity in the early Aughts was unhappy. Hassled $SPOUSE over a few hundred dollars left in her account (deposited after the rest had been withdrawn), while getting my 401k out was an epic case of obstacles. I think some of those people are in charge of FOIAs for FICUS…
Not a fan of Fidelity.
We still have some of hubby’s in Fidelity. But the entire amount was rolled over into Fidelity IRA, then half (?) transferred to his regular IRA. Hubby wants access to the Fidelity financial tools that he gets for free because IRA.
Getting my Simple IRA out of the clutches of Redacted (but it wasn’t Fidelity) was a PIA. Not because of what we did (they tried to pull that). Not our first
401(k)/Simple IRArollover rodeo. And the first one was company held and managed, which in the ’90s meant company stock transfer (not difficult, just hoops to jump through). Took 3 trips and threaten lawyer (we would had to have found one, they didn’t know that) in a letter to get them to get it done at the dollar amount that should have transferred had they not screwed around the first time.The Reader thanks you for a very clear explanation. It was a good reminder that this is not a direct replay of the 70’s.
Alright, you keeps saying DEflation(ary) and I keep seeing prices increase.
Either there is a conflict of definition, or there is some…lag.
And considering the last time of general (not sub-market specific, e.g. computing) deflation, it was a Bad Thing…. I’d kinda like to know What The Photon is (or even just MIGHT BE) going on.
Is this:
A)”Don’t worry about it.”
B) “Be a bit concerned, but don’t panic.”
C) “Your backup system’s backup systems have backup systems, right?”
D) BOHICA
It’s a conundrum. Some of it is jargon — you called me out on just this use of deflation a couple of years ago — I’m afraid, but I believe the current higher prices are a fluctuation around a deflationary trend caused by demographics, the current higher prices are caused by supply constraints which would have already been dissipated except for the war in Ukraine, which played havoc with the price of oil and oil underlies everything. Add to that some bad harvests and you have higher top line price inflation.
economists, snort, use, (should use, many don’t) something called Time Series Decomposition where you break a time series into trend, cycle, seasonality, noise. I add super cycle, which is the long long movement that, I believe with reasons, is demographic and the super cycle is now deflationary , think Japan for the last 30 years but worldwide. key to this is my belief that the vast majority of movement in the world’s economy since the war has been the playing out of the baby boom.
The world’s central banks have been printing money to offset the decline, but the world’s real economic output had been increasing at a fairly constant rate (trend) since the war until 2008 and the growth has been significantly lower since (turn in the super cycle) They’re pushing on a string.
As for cycle, the current banking thing is what always happens when the yield curve is inverted and yield curve inversions always happen when there’s price inflation. You get the causal loop of overlending causes money supply increases causes inflation causes yield curve inversions causes banking failures causes recession. Lather, rinse, repeat. The only difference this time is that the Fed, through QE, stuffed the banks with deposits with nowhere to go except treasuries at really low rates.
I could go on. The key thing is that central planning doesn’t work, and will never work because it can’t. that’s the central observation of the Austrian Economists and it’s absolutely true,
Correct me if I’m wrong, but don’t we have a LOT of loans of all sorts collateralized with real estate, both commercial and residential? If we have a deflationary cycle, aren’t those loans going underwater and subject to being called in?
Yes there are a lot of commercial real estate loans. I doubt very much if they’ll be called in,, they don’t do that anymore and that probably a good thing.
Will they be paid? That’s the trillion dollar question. Many won’t be.
I’m afraid my long term view is very dour. The US is in the best shape, really, but best doesn’t mean good. All the excess will be corrected, one way or the other.
Er… ox slow… where’s the needle pointing on the “Worry Meter” ?
Or is the signal so noisy the thing is a blur, jittering all over?
I’m reading zero edge in the tub, with the plugged-in-toaster at hand again.
Worry meter between dire and disaster. Things are bad. Then again, I’ve been wrong before. I’d like to be wrong here.
Keep an eye out tomorrow. The left has found its martyr for the summer riot season in the NYC subway.
40 arrests I heard so. Yeah. A typical lefty.
Was the guy who defended himself white? If not we won’t hear another word.
Yes. The protests have started. The city hasn’t gotten around to charging him (he’s either a Marine or an ex-Marine) but we’ll see how long it takes.
And he was just asking for food and shelter!
(And announcing that he would hurt people and did not care whether he died or went to prison for life.)
They’re swarming the streets, screeching for ‘JUSTICE!!’
Far as I’m concerned, Neely already got justice. Attack innocent people, again and again, you’ll likely come to a bad end. If the government won’t step up and do its job, more folks are going to do it themselves.
Putting people in jail for defending themselves from violent psychotic freaks will only highlight the government’s failures. Then they’ll see vigilantes for real. So far, it’s only been people defending themselves when attacked, not actively hunting down the criminals.
———————————
“You’re telling me I can’t walk on public sidewalks, that I pay taxes for, in order to protect the violent criminals that would get hurt assaulting me? Have I got that right?”
They are screaming “JUSTICE! Or we will burn it down.”
Um. Um. (No! I will not finish that thought.)
It me a moment to realize QE was Quantitative Easing and not Quantum Entanglement.
I was thinking Queen Elizabeth, for a second, so….
Sorry about the jargon.
Quantum Entanglement is simple compared to the knots economists tie themselves into over Quantitative Easing. for one, Japan has been QE ing for 30 years and it hasn’t worked at all. makes one wonder, I suppose they really do believe in magic, certainly their pay packet requires them to since fighting the Fed makes you unemployable. making someone believe something that endangers their pay packet is almost impossible.
It’s all so depressing.
Quantum Entanglement is simple compared to the knots economists tie themselves into over Quantitative Easing.
Someone once tried to explain all the fiddly bits of family tree (n-th cousin, m-time removed, etc.) I finally gave up, commenting that Relativity was easier than relatives. The someone, despite no familiarity with Relativity, immediately agreed that was likely the case.
Of course. Nothing is ever the Demonrats’ fault . . .
It does feel like 2007 – 2008 again. Maybe the Reader will have another chance to buy BOA at $2 / share again.
If it goes to one you’ll have lost half your money. Citibank. 2008. Cough cough.
The Reader took that risk the last time. But only with money he could afford to lose.
The Reader is glad to see you are still ahead of the news cycle. Both Barrons and the WSJ had articles on PacWest this morning. The Reader notes that the stories only appeared after the Fed’s rate hike yesterday (funny that).
In other oddities, do you have any thoughts on this? The Reader’s was WTF? and a quick look at shorting Apple.
https://gizmodo.com/apple-savings-account-billion-deposit-card-numbers-yiel-1850391385
There’s too much money floating around with no productive use for it. Too much pushing in a string for too long and it’s AAPL!!!! OMG Dude, AAPL!!!!
Thanks for your explanations. I understand the uses of economic context for political gain, but I’ve always had to spend more time than I like trying to figure out the economic moves (poli sci grad programs tend to view economics as handwavium. We just deal with the political fallout).
No worries. I’m afraid I get excited.
It’s all actually political —,central planning and favors for your supporters. It is not economics. Henry Hazlitt’s Economics in One Lesson is all you need for the economics, the rest is just crime.
Yeah, I know. it’s the mathematics of predictions of failure or success that I tend to skip over.
Interesting what percentage of these burning banks are under the San Fran Fed. dry as dust kitty tone Pure coincidence, I’m sure. end dry kitty tone
No coincidence at all I’m afraid. Too much BLM and not enough supervision get their pronouns are correct though.
The next tranche probably not so much. I’m betting that Commercial Real Estate is the next shoe to drop. that’s widespread, and really big in a few middle sized banks in and around NYC.
So this is the banking chatter that Orvan (I think) mentioned to me. =P Yeah, sounds like we’re all going to need something strong to get through that mess…
Reblogged this on Head Noises and commented:
A friend (that I’ve seen! Face to face!) has a guest-post about King Harv’s coffee.
Thank you very much for that and it was definitely awesome meeting you, Elf, and the horde, even if the boys were a little overwhelming! Seriously, I even caught Seventh’s attention for a bit and I’m not sure how that happened!
He has a natural affinity for Our People. 😀
Can sense an Odd at 30 paces!
Considering who his parents and siblings are I don’t doubt it. 😉
There are some times that I am a rather uncertain minotaur.
But you are usually not a minatory minotaur, for which we can be thankful. 😉
“Speak softly, and carry a large axe.”
Not when it came to this and it’s good that you were. Writing it up and all the chattering in the comments has been enjoyable. 🙂
The gold standard is JABLUM Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee
Love Mars, and the other Low Acids I’ve had. Should up my intake again and try the Zaté for reasons.
I get stones and the urologist warned me off my prefered teas, (instant is allowed but bleh. Better’n nothin’ I guess) but me brain is not working up to snuff lately.
Earth and Mars are the only two from the Planets line I haven’t tried and that’s what’s holding me back from that post since I’d like to get all nine at once. With Mars on sale right now and it getting close to time for me to re-order that’s probably going to be my next one from that series. You definitely won’t regret the Zaté if you go for it, though!
Two ends of the family live 500 miles apart and every spring we meet in the middle at a resort half way in between for a long weekend. Five or so years ago younger son and wife brought a Keurig there and some how convinced me that it was to go home with me. Didn’t much like the idea until I did my due diligence and discovered that model had a carafe mode and that refillable carafe pods were easy to purchase and use.
So buy rather generic dark roast beans off Amazon, grind enough for the week, and run two carafes each morning which yields five mugs, three drunk at the ‘puter during the morning scans of the overnights, then two with breakfast.
I drink mine with whole milk, one pink, and three blues.
I’ve tried Jamaican Blue Mountain, Kona, and Gevalia, but decided that the way I doctor the stuff up the pricey beans aren’t worth the investment. But I do think I might just try a taste of Saturn just as a quality check.
Out of those I’ve had King Harv’s JBM (peaberry version) and it was damn awesome for sure! Not the sort of thing I can do as more than a once, maybe twice a year treat but I can see why people love it! Saturn would be a fine choice to try out for sure, even a friend of mine who was skeptical about coffee, and can get rather vocal about things he dislikes, enjoyed that one.
King Harv’s is too expensive for us right now to be a daily drink (we do Costco dark roast for that). But I will be buying it for Christmas presents for us and a few others. Thanks for all the tasting notes!
You’re welcome, Becky! Sorry things didn’t work out for a meetup during yesterday’s business trip! Then again, given how things worked out with my meal breaks I’d say it still went well overall. 🙂
I’m sorry too. But glad to hear you got everything taken care of. We’ll figure it out.
Mmmmm coffeeee
What makes mornings worth getting up
😎🤙🏻
That it does now that I’ve found King Harv’s and a few other places with good stuff to brew! 🙂
Not coffee drinker, more of a PG Tips man (boiling water, 3-4 min, milk, sweetener). But I appreciate a small business with a good product.
What little affection I had for coffee, the smell, was destroyed when a major coffee roaster next to my worksite had their coffee roaster chimney catch fire. Apparently five years of coffee laced creosote (or whatever the oily slick gunk on the inside of a chimney is called) catching fire and melting the steel chimney makes for a really bad smell. Visibility was reduced to around 15 feet for 8 hours. Burnt coffee laced with asphalt and iron – not a pleasant smell.
So yeah, not a coffee drinker, but to those who like it, enjoy.
Knew one (older) fellow who could NOT abide coffee. His folks owned a little store way back and guess who had the arm cranking the coffee grinder? Yup. To him, coffee was work & soreness.
That sounds like quite the colorful disaster to say the least…
Yep, King Harv’s is GOOD coffee, and we even have our own blend now! North Texas Troublemakers! It’s a nice medium roast. As we jokingly say, they are one of our ‘sponsors’, since they’ve sent us coffee to keep us functional! Some of our folks like their Geisha blend too!
The Geisha blend is amazing. My favorite is Galapagos, though.
And that is part of my current lineup and like I told KAries I do enjoy it! It does have a good taste to it and even got me functional this morning after yesterday’s crazy busy day!
You’ll have no coffee, and like it.
https://twitchy.com/aaronw-313234/2023/05/05/from-our-cold-dead-hands-now-theyre-coming-for-our-coffee/
“A growing contingent of people says caffeine is just as potentially addictive and dangerous as other psychoactive chemicals, and that it’s time we start thinking about and regulating it as such.”
‘We don’t want to take your decaf. We just want to take dangerous assault coffee out of the hands of people for their own good’
Looks like those idiots, of which the numbers appear to be single digits, are getting exactly the sort of pushback they deserve though.
There will be revolution for this if nothing else.
Want to alienate ALL of IT, all at once?
That’ll do it.