If you’re not the lucky winner, I’ll have a discount code for you to purchase tickets when I announce the winner next Monday. Good luck! I really hope to see you there. 🙂
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Category Archives: coffee
Guest Blogger at Oklahoma Women Bloggers
So, I was thrilled to be a guest blogger at Oklahoma Women Bloggers and I’ve been waiting to hear when my post, Bag Lady, would be up. It was six days ago! Yikes!
Anyway, give it a look. I enjoyed writing it and hope you’ll get a laugh out of it. 🙂
Coffee Rubbed Steak
I have found something else to do with my Eight O’Clock Coffee. Coffee Rubbed Steak!
I found this recipe in my travels through the interwebs and it looked delicious.
I made it for dinner last night. After grinding the coffee very finely, I mixed the rest of the spices with it and rubbed it into both sides of the meat.
It didn’t say in the recipe to do this but I did this a couple of hours before I planned to cook the steak, then covered and put it in the refrigerator. Also, although we normally don’t add sugar to things, I did add the 1/2 TBS of brown sugar because it wasn’t very much and I wanted to taste what the original recipe ended up like before modifying it.
I then cooked the steak on the stove top for five minutes on either side. It was done with a little pink in the center.
I’ve never cooked a steak in a pan before and I was worried about how juicy it would end up but it was fabulous!
The taste of the rub was good, the level of juiciness was good. I couldn’t noticeably discern a strong coffee flavor but the combination of the spices with the coffee was wonderful.
I served the steak with my famous roasted baby carrots and mashed cauliflower. Delish!
The Cover of the Rolling Stone
One of my favorite things about twitter, as you know if you listen to me at all, is the opportunity to meet my twitter friends in real life. I know that I can go anywhere and have coffee with someone I tweet with.
Yesterday, it was the fabu @patz313. Patsy and I have been twitter friends for over a year, I’d say, and when I learned we were coming to Orlando, I asked if she could meet me for coffee.
We made plans to meet at the Drunken Monkey, a name I loved when she suggested it, and had coffee. I had iced coffee because it’s warm here. (Yay!) 🙂
We sat outside (because it’s warm here, yay!) and chatted away a couple of hours like old friends. I knew that Patsy was an artist but I was enthralled listening to her talk about her rock and roll lifestyle.
I may have a genuine Indian guru but that doesn’t hold a candle to having been on the cover of the Rolling Stone watching Jimi Hendrix. Too, too cool.
I hope I’ll get a chance to hang out with Patsy again in the future. We could have just kept on talking if I didn’t have to get back. Thanks for meeting up with me, Patsy! So happy to call you a real life friend. 🙂
A Cupping We Will Go
I have no idea how I landed on the Topeca Coffee website towards the end of last year but there I was. And I discovered that they hold a free cupping session on the first Friday morning of each month. Since that was coming up in a few days, I excitedly signed up for it.
As the marketing director of 21st Sensory, Inc. for three years, I am very familiar with the sensory analysis of foods, beverages (other than coffee) and personal care products. And that is where I first heard about coffee cupping from one of our ingredient salesman friends.
I knew then, being the coffee achiever that I am, that cupping coffee is something I for sure wanted to do someday and before my Topeca experience I had the chance one other time. Â It was interesting and exciting to actually see how they determine which are the good coffees.
I knew what to expect when I got to Topeca’s Roastery.
When I walked in, I felt like I had entered Lauri’s Playground. 🙂
First we me Ian Picco, Topeca’s Director of Coffee. Is that NOT the BEST title? He took us on a tour of the Roastery.
He explained how their entire process works from shipping, roasting, packaging and shipping back out.  I told David we could fill up one of our empty rooms at the house with one of these beauties. 😉
Then we saw where the beans are stored, in a climate controlled space, until they are ready to be roasted.
The bags are pretty!
Then we finally got to do the cupping. This was so interesting and I learned so much. I am a big fan of Sumatran coffee. When Ian said that he expects to taste spicey notes, like green pepper and radish, in a good Sumatran bean I had never heard of that before. But I was able to pick it out knowing I should be on the lookout for it.
The beans were ground and boiling water poured over them.
We went around and smelled all of the different beans and then when they cooled down, we did the actual tasting of them. This involves taking a puddle of coffee into the spoon and doing a strong slurp to aspirate the coffee over the entire mouth so you hit all of your taste buds. Since you taste differently in different parts of your tongue this ensures you taste it properly.
When we were finished I decided my two favorites were these.
Which translates to these when I buy them off the shelf or their website.
Now that the ice is melted, that’s my plan! Thank you so much to Ian and Topeca Coffee for offering this experience. It was fabu! 🙂
If you’d like to do a cupping at the Topeca Roastery, you can click through here to register for the next class. Have fun and happy cupping! 🙂
Early
up in the morning
it’s dark i should be sleeping
drinking my coffee
Carpe-ing the java @CoffeeCON2013 style
Yesterday, was CoffeeCON 2013 (@coffeecon2013) and it was amazing!
Before going to CoffeeCON, I was finally able to meet up with Ruthann (@RAWiesner) for breakfast. She took me to a place where they bring donuts to the table like they bring rolls or chips and salsa at other places.
How can you not love a place like that? I had an amazing frittata with spinach, bacon and tomatoes. Yum!
Then it was off to the event du jour: CoffeeCON!
Just opening the door you know was fabulous because you could smell all of the different coffee offerings.
When we got to CoffeeCON, we found my twitter friend, Debra (@debramariem).
Debra is terrific, too, and we had fun hanging out together, visiting the vendor booths, the classes and our other twitter friends,
Coffee Nate (@CoffeeNate) and Robert Caruso (@fondalo) who were bloggers at the conference.
One of the things I was most looking forward to was talking to the roasters. There were several different options there including a woman who was roasting beans with a heat gun (yes, like the one from Lowe’s) and a guy who had repurposed his hot air popcorn popper to roast coffee. He was very excited with his roaster and was cute to listen to.
There were two roasters, though, that had machines that seem like what I would use to roast coffee which I believe is the next frontier for me.
We watched coffee demos and attended a couple of classes.
I was really taken with the siphon coffee maker and think I’m going to have to have one of those. I was sad that we didn’t get to see the Turkish Coffee demo. She had some kind of a water issue but I did get the instructions for making the coffee so will be trying that at home soon. 🙂
Right before I left, I thanked the show producer, Kevin Sinnot (@coffeekevin), for his fabulous event. He wanted to interview me because I had come from Oklahoma for the show. I did that and said my goodbyes.
It was such a great time. Great coffee, great people. I can’t wait to return next year and bring/meet more friends. Will you join me? 🙂
My crazy mixed up day
Yesterday morning, when I woke up in Oklahoma it was cold, but a sunny pretty day. I was excited because I was headed to CoffeeCON 2013!
I left the house at 7 a.m. It’s super dark to get from our house to the turnpike so I wanted to avoid that if I could be still get to Chicago in time to have dinner with one of my favorite friends I’ve never met, Ruthann Weisner.
By the time I got to Vinita, the day had turned cloudy and overcast. I wasn’t too unhappy with that since it’s pretty hard to drive East in to the rising sun. When I was almost to Joplin, I started seeing patches of snow on the sides of the road and roofs. Oh, isn’t that cute! It really did snow on May 3rd.
By the time I got to Springfield, it was full on snowing including snow plows, cars in the ditches, a flipped over semi truck and an accident on the other side of the road that had traffic backed up for miles.
I was happy not to be on that side of the road and I drove carefully (there are idiots out there!) for a little over four hours until I got to Rolla, MO where I usually fill up the first time when I drive to Chicago.
And this happened:
Please tell me, how on earth I managed to have clothes for six days and four seasons, twelve pairs of shoes, my computer, two coats (winter, spring), my coffee bag, and a pillow but NO PURSE!
LOL! I’ve never done that before. I called David, a.k.a. my hero, and told him of my plight. He got my purse and another pair of shoes (because you just can’t have too many shoes) and headed the over four hours to bring me my purse.
It was lunch time by then and I was hungry. I had brought toll money because I knew I had to travel on the tollway part of the way to get to my hotel but I had no idea how much it was so I asked on twitter if anyone knew.
Yes, that’s what I figured. A bajillion dollars. Illinois tolls are EXPENSIVE! So I looked around the car. I always have money in the center console and I wasn’t disappointed. I found a bag of dimes that must have been left in there from when we had to use the laundromat at some point.
Feeling like a panhandler, but a happy panhandler, I went into McDonald’s and paid 33 dimes for my lunch.
David arrived around 3:45 and I was gassed up and back on the road by 4 p.m.
I had put my winter coat on because it was 31 degrees and after sitting in the car for four hours I was chilled through even though I put the heat on periodically.
I stopped for gas the second time in a blinding thunder storm. When I got out of the car, I realized
It was 68 degrees. I was pretty sick of driving by that point and the rain made it hard to see since it was getting dark. I drove about ten more miles and that was it. The roads weren’t even wet. I opened my sunroof. 🙂
I finally arrived just before eleven p.m. I had left 16 hours before that and I was never so happy to see a hotel room or bed in my life.
I didn’t get to have dinner with Ruthanne but I’ll be having breakfast with her and I’m super excited to go to CoffeeCON. I hope your Saturday is fabu and unmixed up! 🙂
I’m going to @CoffeeCON2013!
I first learned of CoffeeCON last year after my friend Robert Caruso (@fondalo) returned. I checked out the website and made my mind up right then and there that I was going to be there this year. I mean, really, as a coffee achiever, is there a more perfect place for me? 🙂
One of the reasons I’m excited about going is for the coffee, of course. After my trip to Eight O’Clock Coffee, I fulfilled one dream: to learn how to cup coffee.
While I was at Eight O’Clock Coffee, I talked to Glenn quite a bit about roasting coffee beans. It sparked a new dream: to learn how to roast my own coffee. There will be coffee roasters at CoffeeCON that I can talk to and learn more about this. Exciting! 🙂
Although I asked if I really have to go to class, I’m super excited about learning more about different coffee topics. After living in the Middle East, I grew extra fond of Turkish Coffee. I’m very much looking forward to the Turkish Coffee demo I see on the schedule. I have a ton of cardamom pods that are just waiting for something in my cupboard. 🙂
I will try (really hard) not to be the class clown so we can all learn something.
An absolutely awesome side benefit of attending CoffeeCON is that I get to meet some of my favorite twitter friends in real life! I’m so looking forward to meeting @fondalo, @coffeenate, @RAWiesner and @thatsalrighty.
If you’re going to @Coffeecon2013, be sure to look me up and say hi!
Look out Chicago, I’m coming home! 🙂
Carpe-ing the java DC style
So, now that things have slowed down a bit, I really need to tell you about my amazing trip to Washington, DC as the guest of Eight O’Clock Coffee.
Back in the summer when David was doing the project in Amarillo, I got a direct message on twitter from the Eight asking for my email address. I gave it to them and then wondered what they could want. I speculated while talking to David but really had absolutely no idea.
I’ve been drinking Eight O’Clock Coffee since I was 15. I remember going to the A&P grocery store when I was little and they had a bright red package and a grinding machine. I have loved the smell of fresh ground coffee my whole life as far as I can remember. 🙂 I was eagerly waiting to hear what Eight O’Clock Coffee wanted to talk to me about that took more than 140 characters.
Then came the email. They had selected me as a Super Fan and wanted to find out what date would work for me to come to DC for a visit to see their coffee operation.
OMG! I was beyond excited!
“I wonder if we’ll get to cup coffee?”, I asked David.
Several years ago, I was marketing director at a sensory lab and that was where I learned about cupping coffee. We analyzed all types of foods, beverages and personal care products but not coffee because that’s a whole different ball game.
So I gave Jaime my information and waited to find out when I was going and what we would do. When I got my itinerary, there it was, “Plant Tour/Cupping Session”. I was SO excited!
When I arrived in DC, they picked me up at the airport in a limo.
They drove me to the Embassy Row Hotel where I was given a goodie bag full of fun stuff and my room. We all met in the lobby for dinner.
I met my sister super fans, Holly and her husband Bill, Donna and her husband, Rudy, and Ronda. Also, I met Jaime and Lori from the S3 Agency who made sure we were where we were supposed to be.
The first night, we went to dinner at Ruth’s Chris Steak House. YUMMMMY! The only bad thing is that Ruth’s Chris doesn’t serve Eight O’Clock Coffee and I think the waiter was a little intimidated by us coffee achievers when we ordered coffee after dinner.
I was lucky to be seated across the table from Glenn for dinner. Not that everyone wasn’t fabulous. They were. But Glenn had been in the coffee business since he was 18 years old, working himself into his current position where he buys the beans, cups the coffee and makes incredible new flavors like the Chocolate Mint they rolled out around Christmas time and we were treated to the following day.
I transformed, groupie-style, into a Glenn monopolizer and I don’t think anyone else got a chance to talk to him at dinner.
The following morning we had breakfast at the hotel with Alisa, Director of Marketing. She basically held a focus group with us on things that could be done differently or better. I heard a lot of good ideas around that table!
We got fabulous red fleece jackets!
Then it was off to Maryland and the coffee roasting facility.
We were welcomed at the door. And again at lunch time.
We were then taken on a tour of the roasting facility. We had to remove all of our jewelry except for our wedding rings so that nothing would fall into the coffee.
Then we got another gorgeous outfit: white coats, goggles and a hairnet! 🙂
We got to see all phases of the coffee operation including the flavoring which smelled AMAZING. It was Hazelnut!
Then, finally, the moment I had been waiting for. We went to the cupping room and they taught us how to cup coffee. In the end, it really wasn’t too different than sensory testing of foods/beverages that I had already experienced. I was pretty good with a spit cup, having had previous experience. 😉
After that we went back to DC and dinner at the Old Ebbitt Grill which was delicious! I can highly recommend the Peanut Butter Pie. 😉
Then back to our hotel to sleep and get ready for an early trip back to the airport.
And there you have it. My awesome Eight O’Clock Coffee trip to DC. It was so amazing, I can hardly believe it really happened. What I learned on my trip was that the people who make Eight O’Clock Coffee are as awesome as the coffee that they produce. As excited as we all were to be there, they were equally excited to have us there. It was so cool.
I tweet about Eight O’Clock Coffee and I’m so excited when I see my friends trying it and enjoying it like I do. Not because of a trip to DC but because the coffee is truly wonderful and it makes me happy to be the bearer of such great coffee information.
Thank you again, Eight O’Clock Coffee. I had the most incredible time and I will never forget your hospitality!
PS – At Christmas time, I got a box from the UPS man. What could it be?
Coffee!!! I thought, “Oh they love me! It’s my favorite French Roast!” 🙂