Coffee Coffee Coffee Coffee Coffee!

I am sure that it indicates nothing so much as that there is something rather severely wrong with me, but reading about the new Clover coffee brewing system, my thought process is not 'how much for a coffee maker?' Instead, it is 'how fucking cool is that?! Where can I find a local brewhouse that's using one?'

I find it interesting to watch my own palette evolve as time goes on.

When I was younger, up until my late teens really, I had a kids' palette. Fast food, sweet stuff, the like. I didn't drink, because I had no particular desire to be drunk, and the drinks that people drink for the real enjoyment, like good scotch or microbrew beers, had no appeal to me at all.

Then, throughout grad school, I learned to appreciate various new and interesting flavors. I learned to appreciate good beer - in retrospect, this might be the single most useful thing I learned in school. Also, thanks to my cousin's husband, I started to learn the joys of a good scotch. I branched out into other liquors. At the same time, I was learning and practicing new cooking techniques (thanks, Michelle, for guinea pigging so many new recipes!).

But my tastes definitely were still at the stronger side of things. Dark coffee. Porters and stouts, when it came to beer. Deep, smokey scotches, instead of lighter, fruitier ones.

But my palette is definitely still evolving. I came home from Hawai'i in September with several pounds of Kona coffee from Greenwell Farms, the world's leading supplier of Kona beans. After giving a gift of a pound to a friend, I tasted the result and oh sweet lord, that was some good coffee. I ended up keeping a pound for myself that had originally been intended as a gift for friends (sorry, Drew and Daisy). I'm very much enjoying the Glenfarclas that LJ got me for a groomsman gift at his wedding last year, which is definitely less smokey than my usual tastes run. And the wheat beer that Drew and Daisy recently brewed is only the second wheat beer I've ever enjoyed, and is actually one of my more favorite homebrews ever.

So, after reading this article, I am so crazy excited to get my hands on one 'a' them there fancy-schmancy coffeemakers. Not $11,000 excited, but still. You know. Excited.