...The Way I Like My Coffee

I don't know whoever started the saying about liking their men the way they like their coffee, but I get it. I like my coffee the way I like my life: dark roast, light roast, and all the toasty roasts in between. It's been more dark than light lately, but that's all right.

Not using sugar or flavored creamer in my coffee was only possible because of a particular coffee brand. For the past couple of years, I have so wanted to learn to enjoy plain black coffee. Black coffee (instead of the sugary, heavily-creamed stuff) has a lot of potential benefits:

• It's low (or no) calorie, free of fat and cholesterol.
• Can be a good source of antioxidants (check my post on ORAC values and if you're a data wonk, check this article. ) The ORAC value for coffee is in the 15,000 to 17,000 range, according to this source. I have not yet looked into the Cascara Powder from coffee.
• "Possibly effective" for digestion, diabetes, gallstones and other issues. You should also always keep in mind the way any ingested item could interact with your medications.

I won't get into all the other debatable claims about weight loss, cancer-curbing, memory-boosting, artery-cleansing, etc. Some of those claims have studies behind them and some are potentially true for some or most people.

As I said, I've had to learn to drink black coffee. A lot of people have the opinions I used to: coffee is not made to drink black, it's too harsh-tasting and... just blecch! What I know now is that it's all about roast, grind, and brewing method. I started drinking Luzianne brand black because it's mellower-tasting the darks roasts I always liked. Now I have discovered 2 other brands:

First one I tried

Number 2

I got the Caribou from Hy-vee for just over 5 bucks for the 12-oz bag. The taste is mild enough to drink black, but I wasn't impressed by the bland flavor. It will do for when I run out of my other coffees.

It is lighter than my Luzianne and Cafe du Monde dark roasts.

Caribou
I heightened the contrast so you can tell it's not
much lighter than the Cafe du Monde or Luzianne dark roasts

The Kicking Horse brand is from Amazon and was 10 bucks for the 10-oz bag. Crazy. I really wanted to kick my own horse for splurging on this one. Except... It's kind of yummy. It's not dollar-per-ounce-yummy but it's nice. The one negative about this one (other than that price) is that I like it better with at least a drop or two of creamer. Minus creamer, it's got a very slightly and pleasantly woody taste; with a touch of creamer, it gets all smoky and toasty-tasting. Yeah, so, nto helping me in the calorie department.

Kicking Horse
is very finely ground too

When it's time to get more coffee, I think I am going to try one that is light roast but has a touch of chocolate. I think I can do anything as long as chocolate is involved.

Overall, if my opinion matters, I would recommend the Kicking Horse Hola (for those who can afford it). The Caribou is a Nope for me because Luzianne is just as good black and is a better coffee all around.

That's my coffee post for now. I will update when I've had the chance to try more flavors/brands.

Peace
--Free

*I do NOT get paid as an affiliate for any of the links in this post