World of Coffee-Costa Rican Sunshine!

This morning I'm writing with the stub of a number 2 pencil in a nod to our neighbor growing up, Bob Bickel, a fine journalist of the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle newspaper. Seemed to me that he always scribbled his notes with a pencil stub, and those notes would appear, like magic, the next day or so in the newspaper. Anyway, this coffee, Peet's, single origin Costa Rican-- medium roast, is good for remembering-- a reminder, un recordatorio.

I smell blueberries on the aroma, sort of the steam coming off a hot cup. I'm not sure if I've ever smelled blueberries steaming up from a cup, but there you have it. Coffee's a berry so why not?

Like I said, this coffee's “un recordatorio”. Sniffing the grounds in the Aero Press from yesterday morning's pressing of Petes: milk chocolaty. This smelling of yesterday's grounds technique, by the way, isn't found on any page of the Specialty Coffee Association handbook. My grandfather, Cornelius the diplomat Spanish speaking guy, would have liked the chocolate fragrance. He sometimes referred to himself as a “chocoholic”. I think he went to school in Berkeley, Ca., which is coincidentally the home of Peet's Coffee. However, his turn of the twentieth century biography could be colorfully misty, something like the Costa Rican rain forest.

“Oh, yeah, that's good compared to what we've been drinking,” my wife says. We've been drinking the Great Value coffee from the Shaw's with it's workman like quality and an acceptable amount of over-ripes. Innate coffee expert that she is, she recognizes that the Peet's is several hundred meters up the mountain from the Great Value get 'er done coffee.

On the finish there's a delicate, subtle roasty note which says to me that the cooking was “slow and low” like good barbecue-- just right. The coffee's bright-- citrus, lemony, but the bright isn't out ahead of the rich, chocolaty coffee-ness. It's sort of blended in on the same level. Maybe that's the artful roasting.

Our Spanish teacher, Mario Martinez , showed us some beautiful slides of Costa Rica with its lush rain forests, beautiful birds and marvelous coast lines. We never tasted Costa Rican coffee together, but Mario, the culinary guy, aka "Tico con Sabor", would have loved this flavorful coffee, especially the blending of flavors-- cooking.

One of my favorite class discussions with Mario was on the topic of nostalgia. Mario, made the wonderful point that nostalgia was, to his mind, a symptom of a life well lived with good friends, good food and perhaps good coffee shared with friends. This coffee seems to be a good conger-er of nostalgia. I wonder if Bob Bickel, in his merchant marine days ever made it to Costa Rica to taste some coffee. Perhaps, he simply enjoyed some Costa Rican coffee on the Great Lakes.

There is a touch of earthiness in the aftertaste. This makes sense, to me, since Costa Rica has jungle and rain forest similar to Indonesia-- same terroir. As the coffee cools and sends its secrets out into the world, it does have a sweetness and a honied mouth feel although it doesn't quite taste like honey. It's more of a sweet lemonade.

Thanks again to the folks at Peet's for sourcing, shipping, roasting, grinding, packaging and delivering to us a nice slice of Costa Rican Sunshine!! Pura Vida!!!