I recently took a drive with the family down to see my in-laws in Texas. 20 hours in a minivan with 3 kids, is a long 20 hours. Requires a lot of coffee! Sometimes people are surprised to find that I don't bring my own coffee with me on trips. Well I do, but those are mostly gifts for family and friends. I love coffee, and so I like to taste what others are brewing up. It helps me refine my taste as a roaster, and you never know when you will come across something new and amazing!
Unfortunately I didn't find anything new and amazing this time around. With three kids. all under the age of five, you don't exactly go off the beaten path to find good coffee. I was relegated to truck stops, and lets say, those are not the first choice for good coffee. It seems there are a lot of Pilot stations on the way down, so I got to try all of their blends. At the first stop I tried their Pilot Blend (or was it their House Blend?). It was not bad, a good smooth coffee, not bitter. I was happy I found a decent coffee, and I knew there would be a lot more of these stations along the way.
That was the end of the good coffee. The rest of the way down I tried their other blends, and for the most part, I had to dump them out because I couldn't drink them. Even when I got sick and tired of trying everything else, their Pilot Blend failed me as well.
Halfway through the trip we stopped at a hotel, they had a coffee pot in the room, and I brewed some coffee in the morning before we took off. Hallelujah, good coffee. It was of course in a small cup, but I was delighted to see large containers of it downstairs for their continental breakfast. The coffee had the same blend name on it, and it was brewed in commercial brewers, so I had more confidence that I would have enough good coffee to get me started on my trip. I was so very wrong. I couldn't believe the difference! The coffee for their breakfast was terrible! It was too dark and bitter. So I loaded the family in the car, and headed down the road, feeling defeated.
I'm a coffee snob, of course. I have to be, it's my job. But I can drink and enjoy coffee at most restaurants, and I can even drink Maxwell House or Folgers if I have to. If I have to pour out a coffee because I can can't drink it, well it's bad. To be fair, I have to drink my coffee black, so some of this might be drinkable with cream and sugar. If it is, I'm not the guy to review it.
