Recently in New Taste Club Category

Coffee is the greatest beverage ever created. Although beer and whisky come very close, no beverage other than water is more essential to human productivity. Thankfully, the spread of the latte and espresso machine have ended the tyranny of Folgers and weak and crappy coffee in America. Living in Portland, OR, we are especially blessed with an abundance of the best coffee. Even so, we have not met many people who really know (in the biblical sense) the coffee they drink. While many people have their preferred method of preparation, coffee still comes in only two styles for most of us: regular or decaf. Again, Portland has blessed us with amazingly great coffee, so here we tend to think of coffee as either Stumptown or Other, but there are so many varieties that we think it is time to move beyond simply saying "Nice coffee" or "I like this" and dig into the wonderfully wide world of coffee.

The we in this case is Jona Bectolt, Josh Berezin and Jike Berrill (he just wants to fit in). We met at 8:00 am to prepare and discuss coffee before work. Josh went to Stumptown and chose three different kinds.

Holler Mountain Blend: Blend of Indonesian and Latin American coffees.
What we call "The Standard." We could drink this coffee every day. It's not a wild ride; it's more like a train that runs precisely on schedule. A blend is interesting because by being made of several bean types and carefully crafted for flavor it is designed to taste great and balanced. Thankfully for us, we are not attempting to rate these coffees, but rather to sample and explore the differences. The Holler Mountain Blend, being the precisely blended flavor designed to be had day after day and each time give you that satisfying warm rush of soupy coffee sharpness that melts into a caffeine glow over your whole body, works as the perfect base from which we can compare and contrast other unique and special coffees.

Mexico Udepam: With the taste of the Holler Mountain Blend still fading, we sipped the Mexico Udepam. Right away we all agreed this was a much weaker coffee, and it's didn't follow the Holler Mountain well. After a few more sips, erasing the taste of the previous cup, the flavor was better appreciated on its own merits. While we still felt like there was an earthy or dirt-like aspect to the flavor, the overall taste is very mild; it has a sort of diner-coffee like thinness to it. Those of us who are able to sleep at any moment thought this might be a good evening cup of coffee. Like when you have only three more episodes of LOST to watch and it's already 2:21 am.

Ethiopia Harar: The Ethiopia Harar was recommended to us by Stewart Stone, who said "it tastes exactly like crunchberries". The initial aroma from this cup is very unlike any other coffee in that there is a distinct sweetness. It's almost-off putting because it is so unexpected, but after a few tentative sips we all agreed it wanted to try it again. The flavor is like tea and coffee combined and we definitely tasted Stewart's crunchberries in the aftertaste. By far the most distinct of the coffee's we tried, and probably the most fun to share with new people.

After tasting all three coffee's and jotting down a few notes we discussed the various coffee types and also where they were from and how much we collectively love Stumptown Coffee. We mixed the mugs up (they all looked the same) and tried a blind taste test and it was quite easy to distinguish the three. Sure, these are three very different coffees, but in the past it's always been "Oh, is this Stumptown?" but never, "Oh, is this Ethiopian Harar?" It felt like a coffee milestone was crossed.

Maxwell Bass Sr. [blog] has recently ditched the pacific northwest for the magical wonders of New York City. He has agreed to be on the look out for food and drinks that are new to him. This is his first post as part of the NYC branch of the New Taste Club.

Maxwell Bass Sr. tells us, "Tropical Fantasy Grape is awesome. Very grapey. I get the fantasy at a li'l cafe round the corner from my house called California Pizza."

Tropical Fantasy was brought onto the market in September 1990 by Brooklyn Bottling, a small family-owned soft drink manufacturer established in 1937, that was in 1990 only just getting by on its line of seltzers. Fantasy's comparably low price (49� per 20-ounce bottle versus Coke and Pepsi's 80� price tag for a 16-ouncer) led to a stunning initial success, and overnight a moribund firm became a bottler now with per-month sales of $2 million plus.

In April 1991 rumors began circulating in black neighborhoods that the beverage was laced with a secret ingredient that would cause sterility in black men, and that the Ku Klux Klan were the actual bottlers.

Sales of the beverage plummeted by 70%. (these rumors were of course not true)

Maxwell Bass says, "Fizzy Lizzy I get at my work. It tastes like fizzy juice."

Fizzy Lizzy consists of all-natural fruit juice and sparkling water with no added sugar, corn syrup or preservatives and an average of 70% juice per bottle. Fizzy Lizzy started because Lizzy Marlin used to always mix fruit juice and seltzer at home but could never find such a concoction in stores. She created a market for people who crave a healthful alternative to soda and a drink that�s not overly sweet.

BevNet describes the brand: Health conscious Americans can begin counting calories backwards, as Fizzy Lizzy LLC introduces a line of all-natural beverages made solely from fruit juice and seltzer that are delicious, refreshing, and not too sweet.

Maxwell Bass Sr. tells us, "The Presidente tastes like Pabst and Corona mixed. It's just as prevalent as Corona, if not more so. You see it all over NYC, advertised with neon signs and shit."

Presidente is a national favorite in the Dominican Republic brewed by Cerveceria Nacional Dominicana. Although not very well known, it's premier beer, Presidente Pilsener is popular in many Hispanic neighborhoods in the United States. There is a lot of online rumor-mongering about this being a brand in the SABMiller family, but there is nothing listed on the SABMiller corporate site about it, but it's possible the confusion comes the fact that they import the beer to the US (via a subsidiary, Martlet Importing Co.).