Friday, December 31, 2004


amazing & what brown can't do for you

first of all, let me immediately thank the coffee-drinking consumer community. many of you have already responded to bill fishbein's appeal for the coffee kids sumatra relief fund.

for example, one group of home-roasting consumers, the green coffee co-op, has apparently even launched a US$600 matching donation grant. that's amazing.

and i'm sure donations will be prove steady in the long weeks and months of reconstruction to come!

still not feeling my best, my day was however quite brightened by this news. and by the delivery of several pounds of mr. right's old favorite, caffé d'arte from seattle. truly long-time readers will recall that i first mentioned their coffee long ago.

(it's a shame that a long-ago server error in the old blogger ate posts older than may 2001 and caused me to have to re-create my account. otherwise you would have seen my early discussions of this coffee.)

after such a length of time, it's great to check in with an old friend. thank you so much, tim fleming!

however, i can't help but notice something -- which is of course not at all tim's fault. this coffee was shipped to me ups on dec. 21 to arrive before xmas; yet i didn't receive it until today.

why? it's a pure example of what brown can't do for you! stories of ups errors and bungles are so common in the consumer coffee community it's almost comic.

and here's mine -- click this link to see the tracking of this coffee and then click the details link for a hearty laugh! that's right: ups seems to have misrouted this coffee 3 separate times during shipment.

first misrouted by train; then misrouted at parsippany; then misrouted in new york city (that's why it was checked in and out several times, apparently).

so alas this lovely coffee, which should have reached me at 3 or 4 days old, is now 10 days old! meanwhile, let me say that the batdorf dancing goat coffee lovely jessica sent me fed ex ground on dec. 28 also arrived here today without incident. . .as usual!

again, i stress this has nothing to do per se with tim or jessica -- it's just another example that brown can't do.

but let's focus on the positive today. what coffees did tim kindly send?

the espressi firenze, parioli, taormina and the wood-roasted fabbriano, as well as as the wood-roasted drip blend, velletri. mr. right used to be rather fond of their firenze northern-italian-style espresso.

it'll be a great way to start the new year. i'll be staying home with this cold, but i wish all of you fun send-off to 2004, and a very happy 2005!

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