by Lars H On a recent trip to Austin, I learned that there was a flagship HEB grocery store near Lake Austin that has its very own coffee shop. As …
by Lars H
Recently I realized that even Burger King serves iced coffee now. I’ve never tried it, but was curious to see if it was any good. I dropped by a Burger King not to far away from my workplace in Dallas and ordered both of the two iced coffee options. A vanilla iced coffee and a mocha iced coffee.
by Lars H
I love Chick-fil-A, although I’m not a fan of their hot coffee. Recently I learned they also serve iced coffee too though, so I went back to try them all. Here’s what I found out.
There are three different iced coffees at Chick-fil-A to choose from. There’s regular iced coffee, vanilla iced coffee, and Frosted Coffee, which is a blend of their ice cream and cold brewed coffee. The regular iced coffee and vanilla iced coffees are also made with cold brewed coffee, along with 2 percent milk and pure cane sugar. The vanilla is just vanilla flavoring added to that.
by Darren Oliver
This year we have experienced a hot summer. Record-breaking temperatures are taking their toll on everyone, so everyone is looking for a good way to refresh themselves. In our opinion, the way to deal with the heat is one: delicious iced coffee! However, we understand that tastes vary: some prefer sweet coffee, others black, and still others with the addition of milk or syrup. In the maze of different names used by chain coffee shops, one can get lost. After all, it’s not always clear if iced coffee in one coffee shop is the same as in another! So today we’ll talk about iced coffee and iced lattes at three popular chains: McDonalds, Dunkin Donuts, and Starbucks.
by Lars H On a road trip from Memphis to Dallas, I had the opportunity to stop for gas at a Pilot Travel Center gas station, which is a major …
by Lars H On a drive from Dallas to Memphis, I recently stopped for gas on the Arkansas side of Texarkana and ended up at a Road Runner gas station, …
by Nigel Ong
Espresso drinkers usually seek deep, dark, and bold flavors with their coffee. This made roasters roast their coffee extra dark for them. Starbucks also offers its own take on espresso roasts, with the Starbucks Espresso Roast.
However, how good is it? Will it be another case of ‘Charbucks,’ where the beans are roasted to be so smoky you simply taste nothing else? Let’s find out.
In this post, I grab myself a bag of the Starbucks Espresso Roast. Then I brew it several ways and see how the coffee tastes. Finally, I compare the Starbucks Espresso Roast with other espresso roasts and other dark roasts from Starbucks.
by Lars H
We’ve written in the past about the discontinued spiked “hard coffee” drink from Pabst. So we were excited to read that Dunkin’ is going to jump into this market with a new hard iced coffee and tea offering called Dunkin’ Spiked.
by Nigel Ong
IKEA is known for its furniture and home supplies. However, they also ventured into the coffee world, first by making coffee gear and now, coffee roasts. There are several roasts that IKEA offers; one of them is the Patar.
Now, how good is the IKEA Patar? Is this a proper coffee roast, or more as a way for IKEA to sell cheap beans to generate more revenue? I picked up a bag of it to try it out myself.
I will review the IKEA Patar Organic Dark Roast coffee in this post. I’ll brew it three ways and sample them. Then, I’ll flavor them several ways and see if these popular flavorings improve the taste of the coffee.
by Lars H
Ever heard of the Bellwether coffee roasting machine? Bellwether is a company out of Oakland, California. They introduced a new roasting machine back in 2018 (and have since then come out with the Series 2 version in 2022.
What makes them different? The Bellwether doesn’t look like a traditional coffee roasting machine, because it roasts differently. It looks almost like a refrigerator, and is about the same size. Their machines are really designed for coffee shops and not particularly for high volume, large roasting operations. Coffee shops can save a ton of money by roasting their own beans, and the Bellwether is also a very easy to use, mostly automated machine that doesn’t require as much skill to operate. And in addition to all that, the machine was designed to reduce the carbon footprint of coffee roasting. So stores that use them also save money on energy costs.
