Coffee and Me

Every Wednesday I share something from Coffee and Me, releasing January 5, 2027. 

Old beans. Do you have them?

I certainly do.

I was perusing my work cabinet and discovered several bags of beans, some between six months and a year old.

Does it really matter?

I did some research, and apparently coffee beans are at their peak freshness between two and four weeks. After that, the flavor begins to fade.

I also have a bag of beans I bought from a 100-year-old Italian deli when I visited my brother in Oklahoma two years ago.

Recommendations from various websites and Reddit threads suggest I could make chocolate-covered espresso beans: melt some chocolate, dip the beans, set them on parchment paper, and put them in the refrigerator for a few hours.

I imagine they won't come out as pretty as the chocolate-covered espresso beans you buy at Trader Joe's, but I have been thinking about searching Amazon for some quality chocolate.

Another interesting use was a rub for meats. I didn't do much reading on that one.

Still, I think coffee is coffee, and since I don't have the palate of a sommelier, it should be fine. Make my coffee, dash in my cream, add a little Splenda, and all is well.

Speaking of cream, I ventured over to Grocery Outlet the other day because I needed a coffee fix.

Grocery Outlet has some very interesting brands of coffee, and the prices aren't too bad.

The first find was Black Rifle cold brew for only 99 cents a can. I picked up a few to share with the other coffee drinkers at work.

But then came the find.

Zero-sugar Harry Potter-themed Butterbeer coffee creamer.

Products end up at Grocery Outlet because they don't do well in other stores. At least, that's my assumption. I'm not sure it's actually a fact.

But the Butterbeer creamer did make a solid conversation piece.

It tasted a bit like eggnog and root beer, so unless I buy something else, I guess this will be my go-to for the next couple of weeks.

I also bought some Donut Shop coffee from Grocery Outlet. To me, Donut Shop feels like a light roast, a flavored coffee with a hint of glazed donut.

I could be completely wrong. My feelings aren't exactly an accurate measuring stick for the flavors in a particular coffee.

But to me, Donut Shop does seem lighter than a French roast.

I am a light coffee drinker. At Starbucks, I prefer the blonde drip and the other light roasts.

Dark roasts make me nervous.

Nervous keeps me awake, but it isn't a peaceful awake.

So I'm just going to keep grinding up my old beans and making the coffee.

It gets me by.

What is something you keep using and enjoying long after someone else might tell you it's past its prime?

Images are from my imagination, generated by AI. Writing is all me.