Friday, October 7, 2011

Drinking Bad Coffee Under A Stormy Sky With The Indian Ghosts At Village Creek

In the picture you are looking south from the viewing platform overlooking the Village Creek Bayou in Arlington.

As you can see, in the noon time frame, walking among the ghosts and under the oak trees of Village Creek was a bit on the dark and stormy side of a usually bright, sunny day.

Last week I mentioned that water was again flowing through Village Creek, despite the ongoing Great Texas Drought of 2011.

The water began flowing through Village Creek at the same time that 3 water pipelines, courtesy of Chesapeake Energy, ran along the road that leads to Village Creek Natural Historical Area.

I speculated that the reason water was flowing through Village Creek was because Chesapeake Energy needed it so they could do some fracking.

Well, more circumstantial evidence disappeared today. As in the 3 water pipelines are now gone. And water is no longer flowing through Village Creek.

Coincidence? I think not.

Changing the subject from possible coincidences to coffee.

I have never mastered the art of making good tasting coffee. I gave up years ago. I may have mentioned previously that the best coffee I've ever had was had at the WinStar Casino's buffet, in the year of 2004, when I met fellow former Washingtonian, Mrs. McP, for lunch and coffee.

Over the years I've tried grinding coffee beans with no noticeable improvement. I do not recollect doing so ever since I moved to Texas, along with my coffee grinder, which was one of the few kitchen things I did not give my nephew upon moving.

Well. At Town Talk on Wednesday they had bags of coffee beans. From Safeway. They don't have Safeways in Texas. I believe here Safeway is called Tom Thumb. I don't ever go in to a Tom Thumb, so I've no idea if Tom Thumb sells stuff with the Safeway Select brand on the label.

So, I've no idea where Town Talk's Safeway Select coffee came from.

And if you think where this is leading is me saying that I finally made a good cup of coffee, well, you would be wrong. I'm drinking it right now, the first batched brewed with the Town Talk beans.

It's worse than my usual coffee.

5 comments:

Mike Wegner said...

Thank you, Durango. I would have bought some of those beans, but now I know to avoid them.

Safeway used to be in Texas, but they left 30 years ago.

I have found 8 O'clock coffee beans at Town Talk and they are OK.

P.S. I make the best coffee in the world. Some days, I even make cappuccino for me and Gail, but it's very noisy.

--Mr Galtex

GG said...

Enjoying Mike's good coffee now. We buy different kinds, but like this Brazilian coffee from HEB. I have no idea how to make coffee and it pretty much tastes the same to me. :-)

This week's find at Town Town: 12 small bags of Sun Chips (original, blue bag) for $1. I normally don't buy chips but like these small bags for portion control. I assume you will be going there today since it is Saturday.

Durango said...

Mike, what's your secret for making good coffee?

GG, am I some sort of predictable creature of habit? You are correct in your assumption. I'm going to Town Talk today.

Mike Wegner said...

Gail says I may be exaggerating my coffeemaking prowess. But even if my coffee is not the best in the world, it's probably the best in my zip code. Or zip+4.

Always use whole beans. Grind a little finer than medium in a burr grinder; those little blade grinders are not very good.

The most important part is to use a drip machine that gets the water hot enough, a little over 200°; the vast majority do not.

P.S. You are braver than we are, willing to face those Saturday hordes at Town Talk.

Durango said...

Thanks for the coffee making tips.

I like the hordes on Saturday at Town Talk. And the warehouse is open where I sometimes find something good.