The Buhner.com Blog

I don’t have that many coffee options unfortunately. I make my own a lot, and I like that coffee. Most recently I picked up some beans from King Kullen from the Hampton Coffee Company (Organic Peru Norte) and used my grinder in the coffee maker to get some quality joe that way. But now that I’m out of beans and haven’t gotten off my ass to buy any new ones, I’m forced to find outer means to get my coffee fix.

On my way to work, there are four possible stopoffs for coffee, and two are gas stations. I used to drink the Hess coffee a decent amount until I noticed an aftertaste in pretty much every single one of their coffees - I’m not sure if it’s their water or what, but it’s just gotten to the point that I can’t drink it. The coffee at the Mobil station is only really an option if I have to get gas in the morning - they have three pots brewing (two regular, one decaf) and it’s pretty much generic coffee - not necessarily “good”, but not horrible either. Nothing I’d stop there for just to get by itself.

The other two options are Starbucks (right down the corner from the house) and this more localized place called the Golden Pear (JAVA warning for link!), which was the Hamptons answer to Starbucks before Starbucks got out here. The Pear actually downplays their coffee and features a variety of sandwiches, soups, and other light lunch meals. The coffee is quality there - better than average - but their lack of easy in and out parking (the Bridgehampton Pear is right on Main street and has side parking, but I need to be able to see if there’s a spot or not to stop) usually has be passing it by. THe one in Southampton also has parking issues, but if I’m running a little late and I’ve zoomed by other options and I see a spot as I wait at the light, I’ll consider it.

Starbucks burns their coffee. Either that, or they make it entirely too strong. I don’t know, maybe I’m not coffee snob enough, but every time I try their coffee I’m dumping sugar into it because it’s bitter. Not strong, bitter. Like, if I’m getting your mild coffee, it shouldn’t be “strong”. I honestly can’t tell the difference between their mild and their strong - it all just tastes bitter.

But I do love my coffee, so as I was going to work today, I thought about getting some coffee from McDonalds. See, McDonalds has this big push for their “new” coffee, in an effort to cater to either the desirable market share who like premium coffee (their view) or to try to get rid of the view that McDonalds coffee sucks (99% of the world’s view). This is actually McDonald’s third kind of coffee they’ve served out here; last year they started serving Newman’s Own Coffee (which is actually Green Mountain Coffee) at their Northeastern restaurants, but that’s been scrapped, apparently, for this nationwide “improvement”.

So is it improved? I actually went into the McDonalds today to get my bagel sandwich and large coffee just to get a feel for the stuff. McDonalds, best known for the coffee that burns skin off of grandmas, wasn’t setting my expectations high. First impression - this coffee isn’t hot. I grabbed the cup sans-sleeve (which I’ve learned to expect from every place that serves coffee) expecting to work up my coffee hand callous, but nothing. I moved the coffee over for milk and sugar and opened the top and now realized that there was, in fact, molten lava inside. Apparently, not only had McDonalds not learned their lesson, but they’re using trickery to make you believe that the coffee is safe to drink and laughing it up as you drink the boiling java. In actuality, I was impressed with the cup. Starbucks actually gave me a double cup AND a sleeve the other day to protect the coffee hand callous (but probably more realisticly because their cups leak). As much as I hate the annoying “hip people” that McDonalds insists frequent their restaurant in their advertising, the cup itself is quality and hides the heat well. The top is even surprisingly efficent, with the easily breakable seal allowing for a small sippable opening but minimal spillage during transport if you don’t open the thing (a very happy medium between the “always open small hole” lid which doesn’t get much coffee out while drinking but still allows for spillage during transport and the typical “rip open the top” lids which either don’t stay open or end up destroying the whole thing, meaning the transport is ok if you don’t open the things, but attempt to take a sip and you might as well take the whole top off.)

While the coffee container was well thought out, apparently the coffee consumer hasn’t been. The nice latina woman pointed me towards the cream and sugar, and sure enough, it was a big ol’ jug of cream (or half-and-half, it wasn’t made clear). One thing is for sure, it wasn’t milk. Now, for some people, this might be fine. For me, it’s like putting butter in my coffee. I use 1% milk at home and skim on the road (although my home/away splits are surprisingly even - sabermetrics humor!), so using cream in my coffee makes this lactose intolerant stomach turn. I dealt, but next time I’ll have to ask for milk, I guess. I shouldn’t have to; even the Mobil station offers the milk/h&h/1% option, and they only have three pots of coffee.

Another concern - no place to pour out a little coffee. While I appreciate my McDonalds barista giving me a full cup of coffee and not wanting to screw me out of an extra three tablespoons of Premium Roast Coffee™, if you’re putting some of that cream out there for the people to use, volume states that full + more = overflow. Since I wasn’t putting that much cream in there (for previously stated reasons), I just put in a little and filled it up to the rim, then threw the top on.

As for the coffee itself, it’s not bad. Granted, the cream is an overwhelming taste for me right now, but it’s decent from what I can tell. It’s not bitter or anything like that. I’m not sure how often that McDonalds makes fresh coffee (one of the main reasons I think the coffee sucked is that they didn’t make fresh coffee, and the stuff turned to sludge under multiple hours of heat), but I’m definately going to give it another shot.

With my own milk.

LATE UPDATE: The secret to McDonald’s heat protection? A good hearty layer of foam hidden under a paper sticker making the cup appear to be a paper cup. Not entirely environment-friendly, but I’m ok with it.