The Dregs

I've said before that I am a fan of good coffee. Very little compares to a well made cup of high quality coffee on a cool, quiet morning, though I do see the value of a cup of cheap coffee because I'm not the snob I used to be. Still, I try to buy good coffee when I can; if I'm able to support organic farming and fair trade coffee then, for the sake of the people producing my daily caffeine fix and the land that grows it, I'll do it.

Because I make my coffee the same way every day-- two tablespoons of ground coffee for every cup, and usually three cups between my wife and me-- sometimes I'll end up with just a little extra left at the bottom of the bag. Normally I'd use the last bit in a bag of coffee with grounds from the new bag since I'd be drinking it eventually anyway. Some people just dump the remainder into a new bag of coffee, and apparently some people throw it away-- which is wild to me. 

At some point, though, I decided to take the little bit of coffee I had left in a bag and saved it in a jar. Over the course of weeks I'd try different brands and roasts of coffee, and once a bag was almost through I'd take the little bit left in the bag and add it to the jar. Eventually enough coffee ended up in the jar to make a full pot of coffee.

I call it the dregs. 

Some folks during the early months of covid had "infinity bottle" projects, and I'm no exception. The concept is, essentially, that you take a small amount of whiskey (or any spirit, really) from bottles you enjoyed and blend them together in what ends up being a highly custom blended whiskey (though it's kind of a glorified and more notated Kings Cup). As whiskey is added, the flavor and character of the contents changes, and it becomes a new experience over time. This, along with not wanting to waste perfectly good coffee, was the reason I stared saving the little remainders of coffee in a jar; I wanted a unique cup of coffee that also wasn't so wasteful. 

However, unlike whiskey, coffee gets stale and loses flavor over time. It's why most coffee is nitrogen packed or vacuum sealed, so mixing old ground coffee in an old repurposed pasta jar isn't going to yield the same sensory experience as, say, blending a 12 year old Islay Scotch with a quality Kentucky bourbon. You won't find the dregs of whatever mix of coffee I got on sale served in a high end cafe in Paris. 

Here's the thing, though; I ain't picky. I appreciate carefully crafted artisan roasted coffee grown in small family farms served in hand crafted ceramic ware in high end coffee shops, but if I have a cup of three-hour old Farmer Brothers hotel lobby coffee in front of me I'll drink it too. If I have a mix of old coffees from the last couple months, and haven't gone to the store to get more coffee yet, I'm more than happy to see how the dregs is tasting. It caffeinates, it isn't wasted, and it has yet to taste too bad, so it's a win-win-win in my book. 

Yesterday I hand ground some organic, fair trade beans and brewed it in a press. Today I'm enjoying the dregs from the coffee pot, and I appreciate them both for what they are.