Tag: coffee

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They All Look the Same to Me

Could Ralphs supermarket make coffee shopping any more confusing? That’s the question I ask regarding the Featured Image, taken today while trying to choose from the selection of on-sale house brands.

Notice that all are “medium roast” but somehow distinct. Supreme Blend is rich and pure, which supposedly differs from Premium that is rich and balanced. Well, both are rich but is balanced therefore not as pure?

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Casualty of Killer Coffee

My wife typically buys Café Bustelo in 10-ounce packs of 24 from Amazon—occasionally a dozen one-pounders. In one recent order, the ground coffee cost 33 cents an ounce, but an Amazon coupon code nipped off another dime. Many months later, as supplies dwindle, best bulk price is 43 cents per ounce. Ouch!

So Annie tried something different, and she seems satisfied with the choice: 12-ounce bags of Death Wish for $4.99 apiece from Grocery Outlet. That works out to 41 cents an ounce. Her choice is an anomaly, though. I no longer see this flavor, Gingerdead, on the company’s website. Grocery Outlet carries many odd lots, and this is one of them—and a bargain, too. Death Wish sells the same size bags in other roasts for $19.99 a piece, which is $1.66 per ounce. By comparison, Café Bustelo website’s price per ounce is same as Amazon’s.

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Espresso Joe

Imminent arrival of Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is good reason to reminisce over old Android smartphone shots. When comparing to pics from various iPhones, while expelling the marketing spell that makes Apple Kool-Aid, I see just how over-hyped are the fruit-logo company’s devices. Yes, photos are often quite good. But the Androids’ are as good, and often better.

The Featured Image is randomly chosen example and was taken using LG-made Google Nexus 4 on Jan. 11, 2013. Yeah, 10 years ago. Vitals: f/2.4, ISO 100, 1/570 sec, 33mm (film equivalent); cropped 3:2 but otherwise not altered.

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Killer Branding

For the first day of Spring in the Northern Hemisphere, I had planned to go with a nature theme. But plans changed after shopping at Grocery Outlet and seeing the wicked instant brew that my wife discovered during another visit. The company and its coffee are about a decade old but they’re new to me (obviously). The instant variety debuted in 2018.

The connotations of Death Wish, “world’s strongest coffee”, and skull-and-crossbones logo are loaded in all the right ways. It’s killer branding. K-pods are called “death cups”.

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‘Growing with Passion’

Whenever walking by this mural, I often regret not photographing the lively, colorful Yipao Coffee outdoor café that once occupied this location. More importantly: What the place displaced—trees and lush green space that the (permanently closed) florist had used. Hence the irony, if you don’t see it yet, of “growing with passion”; because all that remains is dirt, on top of which vehicles park. Nothing green grows, nor the vitality of human interaction.

In late June 2018, I shared about the departure of Florabella, which had to abandon its 24-year commercial space after the landlord informed the owner that rent would triple effective July 1. I wondered: What will replace the florist? Well, Yipao took up residence in the not-long-later clearcut corner area. Interesting aside: John Adams disappeared and was discovered to be accidentally locked inside the closed floral shop, which Yipao used; perhaps for storage. He is among the “Cats of University Heights“; June 2019.

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Amazon Brews Unexpected Coffee Deal

I best be watchful, for my wife is smarter than she pretends to be. If not, she’s the mother of all coincidence. Because by all appearances, the woman used the vendor online tracking everyone suspects to snake a great discount from Amazon. Maybe you can turn to advantage persistant invasion of your privacy.

Our story starts on Feb. 11, 2015, when following days of price comparisons she ordered a 12-pack of one pound Café Bustelo from the Internet retailer. Price: $52.90. As we consumed coffee, she returned to Amazon on March 17, when a shocker waited: Same item cost $69.31. Ah, yeah. That’s a 31 percent increase. But by apparently gaming the system, she later purchased for 19 percent less than previously paid. 

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How Rude!

I get so steamed sometimes by some people’s rude behavior. My daughter and I stopped into the local 7-Eleven this morning for a quick burrito. While we were standing in line, this lady jabbering Spanish over a cell phone made a huge mess at the cappuccino machine (I use lower-case “c” because 7-Eleven Cappuccino isn’t).

She used the wrong size cup, which overflowed all over the machine and made a huge puddle of milky gunk on the floor. And she didn’t care! She continued talking on the cell phone!