Well I am screwed

I started this blog to acheive a goal: to try each of the coffee varietals Stumptown, a Portland coffee shop, has to offer with their Clover brewer. Now, the reason I decided to do this was two-fold. First, I work at Starbucks and we just recently bought out the Clover company and I figured it would give me a good idea of it's strengths and limitations. Secondly, I thought it'd be a good creative writing exercise. Thirdly, I suppose, I just really enjoy the hell out of a good Clover press.


Now imagine my shock and horror when I discovered that, due to the buyout and therefore limitations of service and repair, they had discontinued their clover and switched to a melitta brewing method. This appears to be nothing more than 4 filters lined up in a row, filled with coffee and dosed with hot water. Essentially, just a non-electric cone drip. It's fine but, frankly, I find myself underwhelmed. The gentleman who helped me said the body would be fuller, which is true, but all that really means is you get a bold and velvety mouthfeel without any of the subtlety of flavors that the Clover brought out. I went with a tried and true, the Tula Ethopian blend, which is usually always a burst of different flavors and incredibly good. It's still very good but it's just one dominant note now, an earthy vegetable note, rather than the swirl currants and citrus and, admittedly, vegetable. Like a drip brewer, this method seems to simply focus the coffee into it's purest extraction rather than letting the less dominant notes sing as well. I am going to go here a few more times and try some more staples of mine, simply to see if I am being resentful and therefore not fair to the coffee and the method.

Let's hope this blog has a point now and I don't stop going to the Annex.