Sometime when you give a company your email address, all you get is a bunch of ads for things that aren’t really discounts. Illy hasn’t been abusing our relationship by filling up the inbox with fluff. Today they surprised us with a bit if yummy info by including their recipe for a Cappuccino Viennese. Off to fire up the machine!
In this month’s (January) “Wallpaper” magazine is a two page add for Nespresso showing George Clooney. Wow, he is now doing Nespresso ads now.
Well, actually, he has been doing them for more than a year. My miss, my bad. It would appear that he filmed a commercial for Nespresso just after releasing his movie “Up In The Air” in 2009. I found a page on Nespresso pointing to it. The below is a screen shot of the resulting page. It would appear that the commercial wasn’t for the U.S. .
But, leave it to YouTube and you can find the video you want or need. Here is George being George and Nespresso doing coffee.
And a follow on to that one with John Malkovich
…AND Coffee Brands Simultaneously
Making the switch from my morning Starbucks Breakfast Blend coffee to Coffee People’s Donut Shop K-Cup for Keurig was much easier than I anticipated.
I remember the day I bought my Keurig B70 single-cup coffee maker at Costco. I had been thinking about making the switch from my automatic coffee maker to the Keurig for some time, and with the discount Costco had on the machines at the time made it almost impossible to pass up.
I was excited to load the Keurig machine into my cart, but as I approached the checkout counter, I hesitated. Would I be turning my back on the brand I had been loyal to for over ten years? Did convenience finally win out over quality? I didn’t know it at the time, but after trying about eight different brands of K-Cups, I eventually found a couple brands that matched the quality of the Breakfast Blend coffee from Starbucks that I had been drinking for years.
It’s hard to change your routine, especially a morning routine that you have been accustomed to for many years. Waking up in the morning to your favorite cup of coffee is like waking up to an old friend. The first morning I came downstairs to make my first cup of coffee with my Keurig felt like I was going behind a lover’s back (OK, maybe an exaggeration), but I did feel plenty guilty.
The Keurig machine I bought came with lots of K-Cups to try. When I tried my first K-Cup cup of coffee, I was hugely disappointed. I thought I had made a big mistake purchasing this machine. The coffee was bitter and metallic tasting. Would Costco take this machine back after it had been used? After pouring the first cup out and trying another brand of K-Cup, I felt no better. It was on the third try that I was in heaven. I found Coffee People’s Donut Shop. That was it; I was hooked.
Am I happy I purchased the Keurig? You bet! I look forward to coming downstairs in the morning to greet my new old friend. However, I do get a bit nostalgic during the Holidays when Starbucks releases their “only for a limited time” Christmas Blend coffee. Not to worry though–my local Starbucks is just a short drive from home.
Buzzing by the local Starbucks, we knew the holiday season was upon us as the Christmas Blend was available! If your new to the Christmas Blend, you might want to give it a try if you like slightly stronger coffee without the burnt taste and without the afterburn most often found with the stronger day coffees.
Starbucks describes it as: Multi-Region Blends, Tasting – Sweet, spicy, herbal.
The normal bags of the regular Christmas beans are available. Normally, we enjoy for the month to two months, then they are not available anymore and you can only drink ‘older’ beans. This year, Starbucks has added a Espresso bean version.
And finally, for us folks on the go, a VIA version. Yes, for the first time we can have a cup of the Christmas Blend even when a bean grinder isn’t available. We are normally talking about what a little speciality coffee shop can do better than the big chains, but in this case we are really happy we can take our seasonal coffee with us.
My first thoughts on Starbucks’ new flavored Via coffee (Caramel, in this case) are that it’s sweet. Really, really sweet. Sweet like watching a toddler playing in a room full of puppies and kittens. You don’t even need to add the water and start drinking to experience this; the pre-brewed blend itself assaults your nose with a caramel/sugar aroma as soon as the packet is opened. I am surprised that there are only 60 calories in a serving, because it sure seems like the entire output of the U.S. sugar industry is distilled into each individual package.
I’m not saying that it isn’t tasty, once you’ve quickly and easily mixed 8 ounces of hot water with the coffee. I have become so used to the over-roasted taste of Starbucks’ drip coffee that this was a welcome change. It may also be that I’ve been taking my coffee black for close to a year, and that this is too great of a contrast to not mention it.
That sweet flavor does capture the hint of a caramel macchiato (my previous “regular” drink at Starbucks, before I switched to dry cappuccinos). As I love all things caramel, it goes without saying that I enjoy the taste. I dare say that if you’re not a huge fan of coffee, but do like flavored espresso drinks, you’ll probably like the new flavored Via. It’s certainly easy to make, and for coffee junkies like me it’s perhaps a bit less like the punch in the face that is the regular office coffee/swill and more like drinking the milk left behind from a sugary cereal. It’s an efficacious caffeine-delivery system.
Furthermore, with Via, you don’t have to worry about making the communal coffee or being ostracized for taking the last cup without replenishing the carafe. Overall, I recommend it unless you are the kind of person who thinks that a tablespoon of half-and-half and packet of sugar makes coffee too unbearably sweet.
