Coffee, Tea and Me

My Son, the Closet Coffee Drinker

RT Cunningham — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 14:48:58 +0000

Actually, "closet coffee drinker" probably isn't correct. My son, Jon, isn't hiding and drinking coffee. I just didn't find out, until very recently, that he's a regular coffee drinker although he rarely drinks it at home.

Fast Food Coffee

I noticed Jon drinking a cup of coffee in his bedroom a few days ago and I started asking questions. It's not that he was doing anything wrong; it's just that I never saw him drinking coffee. He usually drinks water, bottled tea, bottled soda, or fruit juice. I asked him how much coffee he drank on a regular basis and I was surprised that he drank one or more cups per day.

Jon doesn't give himself enough time to have a cup of coffee in the morning, after he showers and eats breakfast. I haven't figured out why he doesn't have coffee with his breakfast, but there may be more to it than meets the eye.

After he dresses in his school uniform (he's pursuing a nursing degree here in the Philippines) and heads out, he rides a jeepney with a classmate to the main gate of the Subic Bay Freeport Zone and then has to wait for a shuttle bus to take him to the college at Cubi Point.

He and his classmate each get a cup of coffee at one of the fast food places while they're waiting on the shuttle. His classmate is a neighborhood girl he's fond of (but not his girlfriend) and I suspect he treasures the time spent with her over a cup of coffee in the morning.

Regular and Irregular

Jon only drinks coffee in the morning. He never drinks coffee when I'm drinking it a night. He also doesn't drink coffee on the days in which he has no classes to attend. The fact that I saw him drinking coffee in his bedroom should make me out to be a liar, but he was up early in order to attend duty in another province and he hadn't had enough sleep. This was something irregular in his regular schedule.

My wife doesn't drink coffee every day either and she has no place she needs to be on a regular basis. I guess I'm the only REAL regular (drinking two or more cups every day) coffee drinker in the family.

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Steuarts Black Tea with Cinnamon

RT Cunningham — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 04:35:27 +0000

The last time I was at the Royal Subic store aboard the Subic Bay Freeport Zone, I was looking for teabag tea to use with my iced tea maker and had difficulty finding anything other than various green teas. I prefer black tea and I'm not sure why, but it's probably because that's what I grew up with. The Olongapo markets carry Lipton teas, but I was looking for something a little different and I found it.

Black Tea with Cinnamon

I had never heard of the Steuarts brand of tea, but I was willing to take a chance. Before I brewed my first pitcher with it, I looked it up on the net. I found the George Stuarts Product Page but strangely, this particular product wasn't shown.

This tea is part of the Ceylon tea collection sold by the George Stuart company, and a little research told me that Ceylon was one of the former names of the country of Sri Lanka. So now when I see a tea package of some kind that says "Ceylon", I'll know it comes from Sri Lanka.

The Taste Test

I wasn't disappointed. The cinnamon taste did not overwhelm the natural taste of black tea like the teas with lemon flavoring added (or any fruit for that matter). I like the natural flavor of black tea and that may be one of the reasons I don't like the tea you buy in jars and cans with fruit flavors added. The fruit flavors are all that I ever tasted with brands like Snapple and Arizona Iced Tea.

The cinnamon taste isn't strong and there's just enough there to tell you that it has cinnamon in it. My wife's aunt is staying with us on vacation and when I walked near her, she said she knew what kind of tea it was by the smell. I think she cheated and saw the box in the cabinet and tried to act like she knew something she didn't. Unless that lady has a super keen sense of smell, I don't think the cinnamon smell is strong enough for you to smell unless you have the cup at your lips.

I'll be looking for similar types of teabags the next time I'm out shopping for groceries, regardless of where. I kind of like having a variety of tastes and smells to go along with the natural taste and smell of black tea. I'll even deal with green tea if I find something suitable. The only requirement I have is that the added flavor doesn't overwhelm the natural flavor of tea.

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Taste Testing Café Time Coffee

RT Cunningham — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 08:26:28 +0000

Whenever I shop at the Royal Subic store at the Subic Bay Freeport Zone, I always stock up on coffee. I only shop there once a month, so you can imagine how much of any particular item I might buy at one time.

The problem I have is that when I enter the store's coffee and tea aisle, I tend to get stuck there, ogling all the different brands and kinds of coffee (and sometimes tea). I'm talking about everything from automatic drip coffee to canned coffee, locally produced and imported. Apparently, I'm not the only coffee lover to get stuck there at times because at least two other people were in the aisle, looking at coffee, for as long as I was. One of them was still there when I exited.

Café Time Coffee

Since I have a monthly food (and drink) budget that isn't very flexible, the only thing I can really do is taste test anything other than the coffee I normally stock up on. This time was the first time I saw this particular brand of canned coffee on the shelf.

Café Time Coffee is produced by the Apex Food Company out of Taipei, Taiwan. I bought two flavors, the french roast and the espresso. I checked out the ingredients before buying: Water, coffee, sugar and powdered milk. There's nothing unusual to be wary of.

I have since finished off both cans. The french roast tasted exactly like french roast should, but the espresso wasn't nearly as strong as I thought it would be. The cost was 80 cents (USD) for the french roast and 90 cents for the espresso, and at 11.5 fluid ounces each. This was far cheaper than anything Starbucks has to offer in the store and more liquid to add insult to injury. Do the Starbucks "frappuccino" flavors taste the same, worse or better? In my opinion, the Café Time Coffee tastes almost the same.

More Taste Testing

Next month, I plan to buy a couple of other brands of canned coffee. At this time, I have no idea which brands I'll select but I'll be steering clear of the brands I've already mentioned.

There are some really nasty-tasting coffee brands on the shelves at the Royal Subic and I hope I don't accidentally buy one or more of them since I can't remember which ones are which.

I guess I'll have to consider the luck of the draw when the time comes.

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What Effect does Coffee have on Alcohol Consumption?

RT Cunningham — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 05:04:28 +0000

If you listen to police department representatives and other people who think they know everything there is to know about drinking and being drunk, the only cure for over-indulgence in alcoholic beverages is time. This is something that is preached over and over again and it's usually a measure to prevent drinking and driving.

Is time the only factor?

The theory (not a fact) is that it takes far longer for alcohol to leave the human body than it takes to consume it, if a person drinks more than one ounce per hour. I don't know who came up with that theory, but there's no real scientific evidence backing it up.

In the past, you've probably seen or heard of people drinking cups and cups of coffee in attempts to "sober up". The belief was that the caffeine in the coffee would reverse the effects of the alcohol; caffeine is a stimulant while alcohol is a depressant. It doesn't quite work that way.

The simplest way to reverse the effects of alcohol is to get the alcohol out of your system as quickly as possible. Drinking a lot of non-alcoholic beverages while inebriated (without drinking any more alcoholic beverages) as quickly as possible will flush the alcohol from the system. The "coffee trick" is nothing more than a misguided attempt at this procedure. Of course coffee will work – and so will plain water.

The hangover the next day is usually caused by being in a dehydrated condition, as a result of alcohol consumption, and going to sleep in that condition. Flooding the body with non-alcoholic beverages will remove the condition, if practiced before sleeping, and will do more to get rid of the hangover (if you have one) the next day if you didn't do it before sleeping.

If you think I'm just making this up, think again. I spent 20 years on active duty in the military and drank more than my fair share of alcoholic beverages in the first five of them. It was during this period that I learned what worked and what didn't. During the remaining years of active service, I taught quite a few others how to do what I learned and I have no doubt it prevented some health problems as well as some DUI tickets.

Coffee, Alcohol and Cirrhosis of the Liver

There were some studies conducted during the last decade that you should find interesting if you're both a coffee drinker and a consumer of alcoholic beverages.

Cirrhosis is the irreversible scarring of the liver that hurts the organ's ability to filter toxins from the blood. Cirrhosis is caused by more than just alcohol abuse, but alcohol abuse gets the most attention. Other causes include Hepatitis C and inherited diseases.

What the studies found is that the likelihood of cirrhosis was reduced by 22 percent for each cup of coffee consumed per day, capped at about 88 percent for four cups of coffee per day. These statistics were measured for the heaviest alcohol drinkers as well as the lightest.

If this isn't enough to convince you to get your daily dose of coffee, if you're an alcoholic beverage consumer, then I suppose nothing will.

Here are a couple of relevant articles to back up my information:

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Why Coffee and Tea and not Beer or Wine?

RT Cunningham — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 07:27:17 +0000

I've actually been asked the question: Why do I prefer to drink coffee and tea instead of beer or wine (or other alcoholic beverages)? I know people who will not drink anything but beer or just plain water. I also know people who will only drink wine and water. Every person has their own preferences and mine happens to be coffee and tea and I'll explain why.

I Over Indulge

Of course I drink more than just coffee and tea. I drink water, fruit juices, Tanduay rum and on occasion, Red Horse beer. I drink coffee in the morning and iced tea during the hot parts of the day. I drink Tanduay rum during outdoor get-togethers and I'll drink Red Horse beer when there's nothing else to drink (except water) during a get-together. I don't even like Red Horse beer and I haven't found a local wine that I like enough to drink even once.

The problem I have is that when I drink alcoholic beverages, I tend to over-indulge, almost reaching the point of getting hammered. I don't like being hammered, so I tend to avoid alcoholic beverages EXCEPT on special occasions.

Only the Best Beer

Honestly, I would drink beer if I could weed out the best beer from all the rest. My son likes Heineken and I can't stand it.

My friend Allyn is showing me some of the best beers at his new Big Beer Blog. Unfortunately, the majority of the beer he reviews isn't available outside of North America (and I'm in the Philippines). If I find a good, stout or hearty beer locally, I'll be sure to tell him about it.

My relatives, the ones living in my compound, are fine with being stuck with Red Horse. Perhaps because it's cheap beer but I'll never be sure. They do sell other brands here, such as Colt 45, but they don't seem to like it at all.

Coffee and Tea

Unless you add an alcoholic beverage of some kind, coffee and tea contains nothing that would cause me to get drunk. I have to admit, I'd drink Kahlua (a coffee liquor) if I could find it here. There's nothing quite like a good "mudslide".

No, I'll stick to coffee and tea as my primary beverages. It's the safe thing for me to do.

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When Good Tea Turns Bad — Bad Tasting Tea

RT Cunningham — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 04:43:53 +0000

As I recently alluded to, I've been using my Hamilton Beach Iced Tea Maker since my wife returned from the US. After leaving a partial pitcher of brewed tea in the fridge for a couple of days, I remembered why I started drinking instant iced tea in the first place. Saying what was in the fridge became bad tasting tea is putting it mildly.

What Makes Brewed Tea Turn Bad?

I've been searching the net for days, looking for an exact answer to this question. The best anyone could come up with is that it starts to ferment or starts to sour due to some form of bacteria or tea leaves decompose just like any other plants and the "extracted" ingredients don't stop decomposing. All of it makes sense, but I can't find an authoritative answer anywhere. Perhaps you could enlighten me and point me in the right direction?

I don't know what causes iced tea, which has been sitting for more than about 15 hours, to suddenly develop a smell and a taste akin to gasoline (or chlorine). I really can't say what it smells like, but it's really bad. I have quickly learned not to store it for longer than the same day it's made. Does that make sense to you? It doesn't sound quite right to me, but what I'm trying to say is that I'll brew one pitcher, pour a glass and then put the rest in the fridge. If I don't finish it off the same day, it gets tossed in the sink.

Go Back to Instant Iced Tea?

The only reason I will EVER return to drinking instant iced tea is when I can no longer find teabags (any brand). Brewed tea, from tea leaves, tastes so much better than instant it's ridiculous.

I've found that I can drink tea, hot or cold, without sugar if I make it strong enough. It's when I make it too weak that it seems to need more taste to it, and sugar gives it the taste. I prefer the taste of the tea over the sweetness although I know a lot of people prefer sweet iced tea, especially southerners.

Anyway… now that I know I can't store iced tea for longer than a day, I don't think I'll ever "accidentally" take a swig of bad tasting tea again.

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Using Our Hamilton Beach Iced Tea Maker

RT Cunningham — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 05:59:45 +0000

My wife brought a Hamilton Beach iced tea maker back with her in August of last year (when she only stayed for a month) and it sat on my kitchen counter, gathering dust, until she returned permanently a week ago today. I had an instant iced tea in a jar, also collecting dust, for at least two months. In fact, the moisture from humidity was absorbed each time it was opened and the last time I opened it, the powder was hard. I tossed it the same day my wife arrived.

Teabags

One of my sisters-in-law is living with her soon-to-be husband. He spent months (a couple of years, I think) as an overseas Filipino worker in Qatar. Each time he returned for vacation, he brought something back for me. The last time, he brought back a box of "Lipton Yellow Label" teabags which sat in a kitchen drawer until the day my wife returned.

My wife also brought three boxes of Luzianne teabags with her, so we have plenty of teabags to go through before we have to get some more. I've only been drinking one or two cups of coffee per day, in the early morning, since my wife arrived. I've been drinking brewed iced tea the rest of the time. I had actually forgotten how much better brewed iced tea tastes than instant iced tea. I'm sure I'm not the first to say there's a world of difference.

Brewing the Tea

The reservoir above the carafe can hold as many teabags as you see fit to use. I prefer to use five of the small ones or three of the large ones. The drip "switch" at the bottom can be set to mild, medium or strong. I really don't see the point, but I set it to strong. After the tea is finished brewing, and it shuts off just like an automatic drip coffee maker would, the tea is a dark, "golden" brown. That's the best description I can use, but it looks awesome considering it's actually black tea.

My wife was the first to make iced tea with the tea maker. She tried putting the ice in the carafe before brewing, but it melted by the time the brewing was completed. The second time, she added ice after the fact and that worked fine. It still melted quickly, so I told her to just forgo the ice and we could add ice to our glasses each time we filled them with tea. That's what we've been doing ever since.

Coffee or Tea?

I still need my coffee in the morning, when it's still cool outside and prefer it during the late evening once it cools down again. In between, I like to drink iced tea instead of plain water.

What's going to be interesting, over the next month or so, is finding more teabags made with black tea. I've found some with green tea, but none with black tea, and I don't like green tea. I guess the search will go hand in hand with my search for a decent coffee maker.

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The DeLonghi DCF212T Coffee Maker

RT Cunningham — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 08:52:13 +0000

DeLonghi is an Italy-based small appliance manufacturer which expanded in a big way in 2001. It's probably more accurately spelled "De' Longhi", but search engines probably wouldn't put the two words together as they should. I've been asleep at the wheel or something because I just recently heard of the company for the first time, unlike brands such as Mr. Coffee or Cuisinart. Still, the DeLonghi coffee makers offer at least one unique feature which should be mentioned.

The DeLonghi DCF212T Coffee Maker

This particular model (and other models may have it, but I haven't checked) has a patented system which allows you to easily access the water tank and coffee filter from the front. The company claims you will "never move your coffee maker" again. They have obviously never met my wife. She moves everything that can possibly be moved.

I don't know how many other coffee manufacturers, and I'm sure I'll come across others, produce coffee makers with "permanent filters", but DeLonghi boasts of it for this model. This is actually something I would appreciate since I use bottled water for my coffee. I'm not really into being "green" and have nothing against the paper filters, but less trash is less trash.

As far as price goes, I see it advertised for prices from $40 to $49.95. There's not much wiggle room there and I'm wondering that, if I find this particular model locally, would I be able to get the price lower than $40. Inquiring minds want to know – since my wife is already home for good, at least I don't have to do the haggling myself.

It's too hot to drink coffee after breakfast-time right now, so shopping can wait for a week or three. Hopefully, I'll know exactly what I want when we start looking for a new coffee maker by the time we actually get out of the house.

Delonghi DCF212T @ testfreaks.com

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Keurig Coffee Makers

RT Cunningham — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 09:59:35 +0000

Sometimes things just don't click (with me, that is). I wrote about Green Mountain Coffee and mentioned that Keurig was a wholly owned subsidiary of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, but it just didn't click. It wasn't until I saw something about how the coffee was brewed that it finally registered in my pea brain. Their coffee makers are for gourmet coffee, not the regular kind, and K-Cups are required.

Gourmet Coffee Brewers

The Keurig coffee makers are one-cup coffee brewers designed for gourmet coffee. You have to insert one of the K-Cup packets to start the process, but it seems simple enough. You're not even limited to coffee — you can brew tea or hot cocoa because they have K-Cups for them too. You can even forgo a packet if all you want is a cup of hot water for something else.

There are several Keurig coffee maker models to choose from and they range in prices from $89.95 to $249.95. Ouch! All that and the K-Cups too in order to get the perfect cup of coffee. Of course, this is perfectly understandable from the perspective that people with pay $5.00 per cup at Starbucks on a regular basis. Why not get a perfect cup of coffee without having to go to a coffee shop to get it? It makes sense.

Alas… It's not for me.

Even IF could find one of the Keurig coffee makers locally and even IF I could get a supply of K-Cups, I probably wouldn't pursue that route to getting my daily fix of coffee.

I currently make my coffee one cup at a time, using instant coffee, so it's not the steps toward making a cup that I have a problem with. The problem is the coffee itself.

You see, sometimes I like my coffee strong and WITH sugar and sometimes I like my coffee weak and WITHOUT sugar (I don't use any kind of creamer, except on rare occasions). I kind of like having granular control on how much and how strong my coffee is going to be.

The pre-measured, pre-decided coffee portions that describe K-Cups in a nutshell is the reason I don't like the San Mig coffee products (3-in-1, 2-in-1, etc.).

Of course, I'm only one person. If this is the kind of product that floats your boat, then have at it. There's absolutely nothing wrong with using Keurig coffee makers and the K-Cups to go with them. They say there's a product out there for everyone. This one just doesn't happen to be mine.

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The Cuisinart DCC-1150 Coffee Maker

RT Cunningham — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 06:44:45 +0000

Time isn't on my side in some ways. A few months have passed since I mentioned I was going to save myself some money by buying a coffee maker. Frankly, I just haven't had the the desire to go out and look for one, haggle over the price and be done with it. Since my wife will be joining me in about a week, after more than a year-long separation, I think I'll just wait and let her do the haggling. In the meantime, I'm going to do some virtual shopping to see what the prices should be as opposed to what the vendors want to charge me.

I'm going to start with the Cuisinart models because it's one of the brands I'm most familiar with. Now, when it comes to virtual shopping, time IS on my side since I don't actually have to go anywhere.

The Cuisinart DCC-1150 Coffee Maker

I don't know about other people, but the first thing I look at is the price. Is it within my target price range? If it is, I'll continue to read. If it isn't, I'll move on to something else. My target price range is between $50 and $100 — anything lower is probably too cheaply made and anything higher is probably not worth the extra expense. I found this particular model, the DCC-1150, at Cuisinart's site for $79.95, so it's within my price range. Knowing that prices can vary greatly, I looked around and found the same model selling at other places for as low as $58.99 (a little more than $20 less than the manufacturer's suggested price). If you add the 12 percent VAT tax I have to pay locally, the lower price is still lower than the suggested price.

This particular model has a 10-cup stainless steel thermal carafe, a plus against the humidity and salt air of the Philippines. It comes in either black or white (I prefer black) and has all the features you'd expect from a coffee maker in this price range. One of the coffee maker accessories I can probably do without when it comes to this particular model is the charcoal water filter. I have bottled water brought in weekly, so any decent filter will probably do the trick. I can probably get the rest of the accessories at the same place I buy the coffee maker.

Regardless of which Cuisinart model I choose, if I choose a Cuisinart model, I know I can find exactly what I'm looking for in terms of price and usability. I've been told by some of the local merchants that I can find that brand, among others, at any of the SM Malls. I hope I don't have to go that far, but with my wife around once again, it's a given that I'll be traveling more often and further from home than I have the desire to do.

Cuisinart DCC-1150 @ testfreaks.com

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