eventually i (with great difficulty) had to switch to decaf…i used to make fun of people who drank decaf, but my day had come. i could NOT find any decaf that tasted like coffee. the best of it was just endurable, and nothing more.

UNTiL i stopped into starbucks and tried their pike decaf…i know decaf coffees have about 10 percent residual decaf (10 percent of the original brews)…my guess is that pike decaf has even more…but it’s a small price to pay for a decaf that actually tastes like real coffee.

not only does it taste like real coffee, it is better than most whole bean brands out there. tasting it, i would not know it was decaf.

i do get a bit of a lift from it, so i’m guessing it has about 20 percent of the caffeine it’s normal coffees have, but i’ve tried decaf/normal coffee bean mixing before and the result still was awful. this pike decaf is a Godsend to those of us who want to (almost) get off drugs (caffeine) but still love our coffee.

now, if they could make a cigarette that wouldn’t give you cancer, i could go back to smoking.

Glad you’re finding the coffee tasting course information helpful. Good for you, nothing beats just tasting the coffee and getting familiar.

Do you have any specialty coffee houses in your area where you might be able to find like-minded folks interested in talking about coffee? Not so much the franchise operation where the owner is absent and just hires college kids to crank out lattes. Not to malign the hired help at some of these coffee houses. Of course there are plenty of truly passionate young baristas out there who know their stuff, you just have to find the right place. If you have a coffee house in your area where they have passion for specialty coffee, hang out. I’ve found people in the right coffee establishment want to talk about coffee as much as you do.

Another idea to track down fellow specialty coffee enthusiasts is a barista competition. If you’ve never attended a barista competition, you’re in for eye-opening experience. Start here (US Barista Championship – click on your region on the US map at the top) and see if you can find something close by. You might have to travel a bit of distance to get to a regional competition, but if you poke around a little (just search online), you might even find something more local in your area.

I post videos from the WBC – World Barista Championships on this blog, have a look at World Barista Championship – Have You Seen These Baristas.

So, of the coffees you’ve been tasting, do you have any particular favorites or leanings?

Mark

Yes, there’s more to coffee than just a dark roast profile. In my book, Pike Place Roast is a respectable blend with an appropriate medium-roast that compliments the beans.

Starbucks doesn’t publish information about the origins that make up the blend, and I’m another that would be interested in more details. I always like to learn more about the coffee I taste.

Here’s my take … given the volume of PPR that Starbucks brews everyday, they can’t go too far outside for unusual or specialty origins. They want to keep the result consistent batch after batch, and go with predictable harvest in sufficient quantities. So the brighter acidity is safely a Latin American characteristic (maybe Costa Rica or Guatemala). Latin America is probably the major component, but there is some citrus/lemon perhaps from an African origin (maybe Kenya), and nice body might come from a Pacific/Asian component.

That’s my guess, although a bit general and vague. If anyone has more insight on the makeup of the PPR blend, let us know ….

Mark

I left Starbucks to work for a more prestigious, small coffee shop that attracts “cult-coffee” goers. Our coffee shop competed in barista competitions and went to the coffee conventions…we took our job seriously!

My comment and question about Pike Place is that it is surprisingly good coffee, absolutely not what I expected from Starbucks!!! What origins do they use in the blend? I cannot find this information anywhere!