Coffee to conquer countries by.

Wow. That is a very strong coffee.

Having sorted out the ratio of coffee:water for the coarser ground, I now have a pot of coffee that stands up, grabs you by the collar, and shouts 'WAKE UP' directly down your throat. They weren't kidding about the dark roast.

With a little bit of extra sugar and some time to get used to it, this is actually pretty good. A touch bitter, but mostly strong. Coffee for mornings on which one must seriously prod buttock.

Grinder, ho!

At last, I have achieved coffee grinder! It's a bit bigger than I was expecting, the canister could probably hold a couple weeks' worth of grounds. The coffee beans du jour are 100% Colombian dark roast, and according to the package, are certified Fair Trade by TransFair Canada. Swanky.

I had no idea coffee beans were so oily. They look very neat though, and I had to resist the urge to stick one in my mouth while I was grinding them. I know chocolate covered espresso beans are a big thing, I'll have to look around for white chocolate versions.

The coffee this morning is a little weak - I was scared off by the dark roasted-ness and used less coffee to brew than I should have. Still a very nice flavour though. I'll hold off on the musing on flavour until I make the next pot.

Colombian snowstorm

Today's pod coffee is Colombia something-or-other. It tastes somewhat less like it's been injected with high-fructose corn syrup, but a little bit like it's been burnt. Perhaps this is Timothy's way of trying to make it more authentic.

Coffee goes so well with cold weather. I've just come in from my morning cigarette, watching the cigarette smoke and the coffee steam rise up and mingle with the snow falling through them. I love that muffled quality that heavy snow gives to everything -- even the metro and highway traffic is muted, and I can close my eyes and imagine I'm the only one around, with my hands wrapped around a warm mug.

I'm waiting for Rick Mercer to come up with 'Snow in the Streets of Toronto: Redux'.

Yet more hermetically sealed evil.

The coffee grinder has not yet arrived and the Mexico was finished over the weekend, so I'm back with the pod coffee today. Hazelnut, to be specific.

According to the label on the pod-box, the Hazelnut is "Hazelnut, Vanilla, Creamy", and vanilla nut-cream jokes aside (those have been pretty much done to death in this office), it tastes like the syrup Tim Horton's uses for their iced cappuccino drinks. Not incredibly appealing at the moment, but if I were to pour it through a bucket of ice chips and top it with non-dairy dessert topping -- it never melts, it's a little frightening -- it might be salvageable.