Oak and Smoke » Coffee

Timothy’s French Vanilla K-Cup

dandyman — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 15:23:05 +0000

One of the selling features of the Keurig brewers is the ease with which you can shift gears and move from one type (or flavor) of coffee to another. When it comes to flavored coffees, I tend to stick to the tried and true French Vanilla and Hazelnut varieties and typically only in the late afternoon or early evening. My biggest complaint with flavored K-Cups is that they tend to be too weak and really thin out with the largest size on my brewer. I’ve gone through just about every French Vanilla available in a K-Cup and I’ve been unimpressed with nearly all of them. This week I picked up a box of Timothy’s French Vanilla and figured I’d tell you all about it.

As I mentioned earlier the biggest problem with most vanilla K-Cups is how weak they are. I’ve heard, on more than one occasion, one coffee drinker ribbing another coffee drinker for drinking a flavored coffee. The implication being that real men don’t drink flavored coffee. So what, real men only eat vanilla ice cream? I’m not sure where that one started, but I bet it had something to do with the fact that most flavored coffees (K-Cup or otherwise) tend to be pretty weak. This is no light blend with a teaspoon of vanilla extract. The Timothy’s French Vanilla K-Cup, however, is anything but weak. This coffee is a very well balanced cup of joe with a subtle taste of vanilla.

If you like a little flavor in your coffee now and then, but still want to taste like coffee, then you should try the Timothy’s French Vanilla K-Cup.

Caribou Coffee Daybreak Morning Blend Review

dandyman — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 21:40:38 +0000

Most mornings my wife goes with “yellow” while I stick with my standard “orange” or “red”. No, I’m not talking about our individual terror threat levels, but which Caribou Coffee K-Cup we’re going to have. The K-Cups are color coded and while I prefer the stronger Caribou Blend (orange) most mornings, she tends to go for the lighter Daybreak Morning Blend.

Daybreak Morning Blend is a light bodied cup of coffee that is designed to ease you in to your day. While the flavor is light, it is not without flavor offering a slight nutty flavor that is quite appealing. The word “mellow” could be used to describe this coffee and many different ways including taste, smell, and appearance. The flavor holds up reasonably well for a “light” coffee, but I find it gets a little thin at the largest size. There is no way you would want to try and eek out another cup out of this K-Cup no matter how desperate you might be.

Overall, Daybreak Morning Blend is the best light bodied coffee I’ve tried to date.

Caribou Coffee Caribou Blend Review

dandyman — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 21:35:47 +0000

My wife and I first discovered Caribou Coffee on a recent trip to our local K-Cup distributor. Neither of us had ever heard of the brand or that they were in fact a chain of coffee shops. Regardless, we picked up a bunch of different flavors and quickly made them a regular staple in our K-Cup stock. This review will be the first in a number of Caribou Coffee reviews.

Caribou’s signature blend is a medium roast that combines has a heavy, rich flavor that is at first quite bold, but mellows out with a touch of fruity sweetness. I’m not sure why my taste buds are programmed the way they are, but when it comes to cigars, coffee, or even salsa; medium is the way to go. Caribou Blend fits that bill nicely, giving me just enough flavor to be interesting without pummeling me in to submission. The flavor of this particular blend holds up real well even at the largest size and I have actually run the same K-Cup twice at the small (6 oz.) setting into the same mug. It was weak, but drinkable. (Desperate times …)

The Caribou Blend is a very fine medium roast that has quickly become my “go-to” coffee in the morning, afternoon, and evening (Decaf).

All of my coffee reviews are performed using K-Cup varieties (unless noted otherwise) brewed using a Keurig Special Edition B60. Each review will feature any special notes related to the three different cup sizes this model can brew. These sizes are small (6 oz.), medium (8 oz.), and large (10 oz.). Typically, the smaller the size the stronger the coffee, but this is not always the case.