Tuesday, May 28, 2013

TR SNIPPET ALL ABOUT COFFEE


 

I did not drink coffee until a couple years ago, but I find it a wonderful drink for waking me up, keeping me awake when driving, eliminating my migraines (coffee and a banana) and on this trip helping with the effects of what was either a head cold or allergies.

I like coffee in the room because I wake up too early to do anything and I write better in the morning.  I prefer an in room coffee maker
 to my little traveling coffee maker:
 
The water gets hotter in the room variety.  But I have the other as a backup and it works fine.

This trip I brought Godiva chocolate truffle coffee which my son gave me.  My son does not drink coffee and was given a whole bag of Lady Godiva chocolate truffle coffee.  He have it to my wife and she gave it to me.  I love it!

The GVI Orleans and Gold Coast coffee maker was just fine and used bags of coffee and replace them for free, but I don’t get daily housekeeping  and did not seem to run into the maids in the hall to remember to ask for coffee.  So I used some of what I carried when I could.

My wife is addicted to coffee and has it every morning soon after she wakes up.  She prefers going out to find a Starbucks or some other good coffee.  At home she uses a French press and she does not like the coffee makers in hotels.  As a result the free coffee packs we encounter in our journeys get tossed in one section of my suitcase.  Here in Vegas they were very useful when the provided coffee ran out.

Coffee makers use standard small bags of coffee at the El Cortez cabana rooms, but at the D there is a fancy Keurig machine.  The cost per cup is $2.50.  My local grocery brand was more like 50 cents per small cup.  I might have bought some, but I don’t really know which of the Keurig  coffees I like the best and just decided to use what I had this trip and set up my traveling coffee pot when I am back at the D.  Next time I’ll bring some hazelnut.

I always pack two ceramic cups when traveling anywhere, one a standard size and another oversized in case I want to use it to steep tea or as a bowl for food brought back to the room. The larger size is also good when brewing any larger bags of coffee I’ve collected in other hotels in my travels with my wife during the year.  Bringing cups may seem extravagant and it does add weight to my already overloaded luggage, but it is just so pleasant to be drinking coffee or tea out of a real cup.  Also, it saves waste.  Those syrofoam cups are terrible to try to reuse.  Honestly, I don’t really like them the first time and I hate to have them next to my computer with these clumsy arthritic hands.  And I think they alter the taste of the coffee.

Downtown I could buy and discard a ceramic cup.  There are plenty of them for a dollar.  However, I have a problem.  I love all sorts of cups and glasses.  I winter in Florida where thrift stores are as common as McDonald’s and prolific with quarter or fifty cent cups or glasses of all sorts.  I drive my wife crazy with my collection.  I often pick up those I like and when I break one traveling,  I feel bad.  To discard a cup I would have to buy one I hated.  That seems counterproductive.

This trip I carried one with a Myer’s rum decal. Since I am drinking almost no alcohol, and certainly not getting drunk on my favorite Myers Rum anymore :


At least the cup logo offers me a pleasant memories.
I carry a small green scratcher to wash cups.  This is a great cleanup tool.

At the Gold Coast I tried some experiments.  Rather than unpack my traveling coffee maker, I decide to use my chocolate coffee to make a second cup in the room coffee maker.  I knew the coffee used with no bag filter would make a mess, but I thought if I sprinkled coffee on top of the coffee provided, I could squeeze out a cup. 

Well that didn’t work.  Loose coffee in these makers manages to find its way around, so it was a while cleaning up the coffee maker and I ran a couple of plain cups of water through to get the last of the grounds.

I grabbed one of the free coffee pods in my suitcase and it was decaf, collected by mistake.  So I decided to try another experiment.  I sliced a small opening in the bag, threw away the decaf coffee and poured some of my Godiva chocolate coffee in that bag.  I put a bit of adhesive tape on the slit and that worked just fine. Perhaps grocery stores sell small bags that can be filled with coffee and sealed in some way.  I’ll look. I know that I can buy coffee in bags like tea bags, but I don’t think the water is hot enough by the time it hits the cup to really get the coffee flavor out.

I thought the coffee in the Gold Coast and the Orleans was very good, but since I lace it with Stevia and cinnamon that may make almost any coffee taste fine.  I am not much of a connoisseur.  I actually prefer tea and try to drink green Japanese Seshua tea often during the day  after reading a study on longevity in Japan where those drinking five cups of Japanese green tea extended their lives by 25%.  I use the coffee as a drug to keep me going at Wild Bill’s pace when I’d rather just sleep

Stevia in a shaker (see photo) is just great and very healthy unlike the artificial that degenerate bones, increase cancer risk, and in most studies actually cause weight gain in spite of having no calories.  I do want to get a smaller holed shaker.  I tend to use too much and make the coffee too sweet.

I carry some cinnamon as some studies suggest it is good for diabetes.  It is on my list of superfoods.  I got more at both the D and the Orleans and carried back to the room added to my stash.

 There is one thing to be careful about when using cinnamon.  Taking to much or breathing it in the lungs is not good.


 

 

 

No comments: