Today is all about premium coffee. As a matter of fact, I’m enjoying a cup of premium coffee right now. If you bear with me for a bit I’ll let you know which kind of premium coffee I’m drinking. Hint, I’ve written about it briefly before, but I forget where, so you’ll have a hard time trolling through all the posts on here to find out. So stay with me, and all will be revealed soon. I’m going to offer you some ideas of what I consider to be gourmet coffee made from gourmet coffee beans. I’ll also let you know some of the places where I buy coffee beans both as the green coffee bean and wholesale coffee beans too. Now I reckon that there is a lot of subjectivity about this as there is with most things to do with coffee. So before you hang me high 😉 I just want to caveat this whole coffee klatch chit chat by saying that this is just my lowly opinion 🙂
Now I know a lot of you will consider coffee pods like the Douwe Egberts Senseo coffee pods and perhaps even the Keurig K cup or Keurig coffee pods to be part of the premium coffee line up. And I wouldn’t necessarily disagree with you. I have enjoyed some premium coffee from Green Mountain coffee pods and Newman’s Own Organic K cups, but I’m going to limit myself to whole bean coffee. So we won’t speak about Keurig coffee, or the Philips Senseo Touch or Lavazza coffee pods. Although as an aside, I would consider Lavazza Blue a premium coffee if only because the Italians just know what to do with coffee generally. And I haven’t met a Lavazza coffee bean that I didn’t enjoy.
Let’s get to the premium coffee
But again, I’m going to try and stretch your enjoyment of premium coffee by offering espresso coffee beans and other coffee beans by small gourmet coffee roasters and other small coffee vendors that I sincerely hope you might not have heard of. For me, part of the premium coffee bean experience is about small batches and micro business models. Coffee is generally such a huge business, that I want to give a nod and a wink to some of the smaller business folk out there doing their darnedest to get us the best premium coffee that they can. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed with any of the options I share with you below.
Okay, the first premium coffee I’m showcasing here is a Kopi Luwak coffee. Or should I say a Kopi Luwak style coffee. For those of you who don’t know, Kopi Luwak is a premium coffee that is made from the partially digested coffee beans that have been through a civet’s (cat) digestive track. This cat eats the coffee cherries and then poops the beans out. Allegedly the digestive enzymes take away from the coffee’s bitterness and provide a very smooth taste and flavor profile. Kopi Luwak is a very premium coffee as it fetches a price of anywhere up to $600 US a pound!
However, I personally can’t afford that for coffee and neither am I super keen to try a coffee that has just come out of someone’s bum if you’ll excuse me for saying that. Also, as with most animal agriculture, a lot of these civets are now being farmed under less than humane conditions and I don’t want to support that either.
The first premium coffee up for grabs
So, I found the next best thing. Or, if I can be so bold as to suggest that I have found the best thing. The good folks at Coffee Primero have developed a chemical process to produce the flavor profile of the Kopi Luwak coffee. This is in fact the coffee I am drinking right now as we speak. I’m enjoying a very nice, smooth cup of Brazilian DaTerra Estate Magic Cat coffee. And the price is great for a premium coffee at around $16 a pound. These are very tasty and fresh roasted coffee beans that are roasted fresh and sent to your right away.
So Brazilian coffee might not be the most premium coffee in the world, but that Magic Cat coffee above sure is. A post on premium coffee wouldn’t be replete without turning to 100 Kona coffee. Any 100% Kona coffee is going to be delicious in my opinion, however, I have particularly enjoyed the Hawaii Roasters 100% Kona dark roasted coffee. At around $30 a pound, this isn’t beyond the reach of most of us.
I would recommend when you first enjoy any of these premium coffees that you do so either with a stainless steel coffee press like the Bodum coffee makers or you use a personal coffee maker for enjoying a fresh cup at a time. After you’ve appreciated this coffee for a while, you can go on to enjoy it in larger quantities 😉
Okay, this post is getting long, so I want to draw it to a close. But for those of you still hanging in there with me, here’s a treat, and my last recommended premium coffee. Also from the folks at Hawaii Roasters, this is the Hawaii Roasters 100% Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee and at around $40 to $50 a pound, the most expensive of the bunch. But if you are serious about enjoying your coffee and about exploring the subtle nuances of coffee bean profiles then you owe it yourself to at least once in your life try a 100% Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee. ‘Nuff said.
That should do it folks. Try any of those 3 and I’m sure you’ll have found a new premium coffee that you enjoy. Premium coffee doesn’t have to be $600 a pound to be delicious.