Gay Coffee…  Who Knew?!?

Certainly not moi – until just a couple of days ago.  A dear friend of ours found out about it and posted a link on her Facebook page.  I followed the link, loved what I saw, and decided I just had to give it a try.

It just arrived and Oh Boy!  It’s just what I wanted!

I know most of you will find this difficult to believe, but I can be a bit of a food snob now and again.  Well…  maybe not really a snob – just slightly opinionated about certain things.  Okay…  REALLY opinionated about certain things.  Kinda.

But I digress…

I like good coffee. 

My very first memory of coffee goes back to when we lived on Potrero Hill in San Francisco – circa 1953… The Hills Brothers Coffee plant was at the bottom of the hill and the scent of roasting coffee was everywhere.  I didn’t know what it was, then, I just knew that I liked it.  We didn’t live there that long, but every time we were anywhere South of Market or along The Embarcadero, that familiar friendly smell was there.

The folks didn’t buy Hills Brothers.  I grew up with Lady Lee coffee made by a fireman.  (Lady Lee is the Lucky Market store brand.  Pop had the ability to make bad coffee taste good.)  Or Farmer Brothers – the restaurant brand at the Donut Center and most of the early restaurants where I worked.

Really good coffee wasn’t an expectation back then.  Adequate was adequate.  And for me, all coffee pretty much tasted the same.

But somewhere along the line, coffee changed.  Expectations changed.  People started drinking more coffee.  Better coffee.  No longer was coffee relegated to the back burner, so to speak.  Coffee came out of the closet and started getting respect.  Single origin beans, quality blends, roasts that actually enhanced beans instead of destroying them.

It was a good thing.

And then Gay Coffee came out and it was even better.

When I first visited the Gay Coffee website, I was enthralled.  How can you not love a coffee named Good Morning Mary or Second Date?  And the fact that all of their beans are organic and fair trade only added to my delight.

I started shopping.

I’m a dark roast coffee-lover.  I like coffee brought right to the edge. Juuuuuust to the edge.  Coffee roasting is an art and not all coffee roasters are artists.  Into my burr coffee grinder the beans went.

**Okay, a bit of snobbery here, but a burr grinder makes for a much better cup of coffee than a blade chopper.  The blade chops the beans and the end result is an uneven grind of big pieces and little pieces.  A burr grinder grinds all of the beans to the same uniform size resulting in a superior brew.

After sampling my first cup of Red Hanky Roast, the Gay Coffee Roasters are artists!

The coffee beans are just the right shade of dark and glisten with their natural oils.  The scent is wonderfully rich.  And the brewed cup is nothing short of steaming sensuality.

I’m in love.

Gay love.

And a bit of coffee-overload at the house right now.  We have bags of Peet’s French Roast and Kimberton Roasters Black Lab in the cabinet along with our three new Gay Coffees.

Did I mention I’m in love?!?