Friday, June 24, 2005


fake aromas and real coffee

" 'the aroma of freshly brewed coffee is distinctive and appealing to many people. . .with this in mind, we created the café pebble to demonstrate how smell can be used effectively to enhance the shopping experience while stimulating desire for food products.' "

long-time readers may recall that i've discussed artificial coffee flavors before: specifically how the big four use 'em to enhance that ground brown vegetable matter they sell in the supermarket cans. at that time, i received a lot of email saying basically, pshaw.

but, alas, sara lee, nestle, kraft, p&g, + tchibo are as evil as we think. . .no doubt we'll find this charming little device in use soon enough.

but while the commercial sectors duplicity is well-documented, let me take a moment to thank boyds for some real coffee. here i'm holding in my hands a nice bag of their organic, shade-grown, rainforest alliance certified rojas blend of central american coffees.

when i press my nose to the valve and squeeze the bag, the most wonderful scent drifts out -- i swear it smells just like german chocolate cake. . .a mixture of dark cocoa, and a fruited, coconut nuttiness. . . yummy.

however, i must say to my dear friends at boyds -- precisely because they are scaa pro members and i love them -- that this sticker on the bottom saying "best brewed by. . ." and showing a date in august, 2005 isn't working for me. please, just give me an actual roast date.

then let me decide if it's fresh enough to drink. if roasters can't get consumers coffee within 2 weeks, maybe they need to consider improving their distribution systems. . .?

i don't mean to harsh on boyds, because they are really sweet people who make good coffee. but we come back to the eternal question: is it really specialty coffee if it isn't fresh?

posted by fortune | 12:39 PM | top | link to this | email this: | | | 0 comments