Sunday, June 5, 2022
Coffee Beanery's Michigan Cherry
Sunday, January 16, 2022
Going Nuts with Bones Coffee
BONES COFFEE COMPANY: MACAMANIAC
The very first impression I had of Macamaniac is that the package features another one of those fun cartoons of the company mascot. Here, our favorite living skeleton is in Hawaii, driving away from an erupting volcano with a carload of macadamia nuts while sipping a drink from a tiny umbrella-festooned coconut half-shell. Once again, the sense of fun in the package art made me feel contented to have given Bones my money even before I got a taste of coffee it was selling.
BONES COFFEE COMPANY: MUSTACHIO
BONES COFFEE COMPANY: PEANUT BUTTER AND JELLY
Wednesday, September 29, 2021
Starbucks Coffee's Pike Place Roast
STARBUCKS CORPORATION: PIKE PLACE ROAST
Visiting the Starbucks Mascot at home (with Milo Manara) |
I took my travel mug full of hot Pike Place Roast and added some sugar-free Italian Sweet Cream creamer--roughly the same amount I added to the Costa Rican blends mentioned above, and what I've been putting in the flavored coffees I've been posting about. I would like to say that I enjoyed my free beverage, but I can't say that I did. At least not as much as I've been enjoying the Bones Coffee Costa Rica blend... or the Sumatra blend for that matter, which was a dark roast.
Until today, I've often been insulted on behalf of Starbucks' roasters when coffee snobs complained about their coffee tasting bitter or burnt. To me, their coffee tasted great... or at least better than some of the stuff I'd get at 7-Eleven and gas stations. The bags I would get of Pike Place Roast for home brewing purposes generally also turned out tasting better than whatever random grocery store roast I picked up to try (barring that lovely Seattle's Best Vanilla whenever I'd spot it on the shelves). But, since I've been brewing and drinking Bones Coffee blends at home pretty much exclusively since mid-May, maybe my tastes have... changed? Become more refined? I now know EXACTLY what the coffee snobs meant when they said that Starbucks coffee tastes burnt.
The Pike Place Roast I drank today was the very definition of burnt. Unlike some of the subtly flavored Bones Coffee blends, and VERY unlike their Costa Rican blend, this coffee tasted bitter and burnt. For the first time ever, after being shocked at how bad I thought this tasted, I looked up what Starbucks says the Pike Place Roast should taste. They say it's supposed to be a smooth, well-balanced medium roast that carries flavors of chocolate and nuts. I've never really noticed any such thing, and I certainly did not notice it in the cut I drank today.
Bottom-line, I find that I am unable to recommend the coffee that used to be one I described as my favorite. Maybe I just got a bad batch--I went in around 2pm, so maybe it had been sitting there simmering all day?--but given that I now can identify with the coffee snobs out there who always dumped on Starbucks, maybe I've just outgrown my one-time favorite?
I will still occasionally end up at Starbucks, but I'll probably stick to the Chai Lattes. Maybe, in the not too distant future, I will get myself a bag of Pike Place Roast and brew up a pot for old time's sake... and to see if it's the coffee that's terrible or just the way they make it at my local Starbucks store.
Wednesday, May 26, 2021
Closing Out Mermay
The annual MerMay festival/challenge (where artists create a mermaid piece that incorporates a pre-determined theme assigned to each day in the month of May) is coming to a close. We're marking the occasion with a random selection of mermaid portraits for your enjoyment, including one by Mermay-originator Tom Bancroft. (We wouldn't have known this was a Thing if not for a random comment from Frank Cho.)
Monday, February 22, 2021
On this day, 100 years ago...
Saturday, September 12, 2020
Happy Birthday. Milo Manara!
Milo Manara is an Italian comic book artist who is perhaps best known for writing and drawing "mature" comics that are equal parts sexy, surreal, and silly. Among his most famous works are "The Ape", the "Adventures of Giuseppe Bergman" series, and the "Click" trilogy (which formed the basis of a movie starring Jacqueline Lovell). He has also illustrated a number of historically based comics, such as "El Gaucho" and "Indian Summer" (written by Hugo Pratt), dabbled in sci-fi and fantasy... and sent a host of people running for the fainting couch over a "Spider-Woman" cover and other art for Marvel Comics a couple years back.
Manara turns 75 years old today. Shades of Gray hopes he has a happy birthday, and that he enjoys many more. We also thank him for the decades of beautiful art and interesting reading material.
In celebration and honor of Manara and his creative works over the past several decades, here's a small gallery of his drawings.